Airstrikes on medical facilities hinder access to healthcare in Myanmar’s resistance-held areas

The junta air force has carried out aerial attacks on at least eight healthcare facilities in areas under the control of anti-regime forces since the beginning of 2024, according to resistance and local sources. According to information compiled from reporting by Myanmar Now, at least 132 civilians have died and around 300 have been injured since the beginning of this year in 30 airstrikes on civilian targets across five states and two regions. Close to 20 children were killed in airstrikes during this six-month period. Myanmar Now counted each incident as an airstrike regardless of the quantity or kind of aircraft, firepower, or munitions deployed. At least four of the aerial assaults recorded by Myanmar Now caused extensive damage to local healthcare facilities in Chin, Rakhine, Karenni and southern Shan states, forcing them to suspend their services or relocate. The health ministry of the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG)—an anti-junta shadow cabinet—reported on Monday that around 350 healthcare facilities have been damaged by the junta air, artillery, and drone strikes since the takeover of the country by the military regime in February 2021. The most recent aerial assault—carried out by junta warplanes in the first weeks of June—damaged at least two healthcare centres within resistance-held areas in Kachin State and Magway Region. The attacks killed a nine-year-old child and injured 20 others, and appeared to target healthcare facilities deliberately, according to a statement issued by the NUG’s ministry of health. In Chin State, a junta fighter jet bombed a hospital in Wammathu village, Mindat Township on April 25, compelling the staff to relocate the facility. The blast and the fires ignited by incendiary bombs destroyed the main buildings, including the medical team’s housing, according to Mindat Township’s People Administrative Team, who said that at least four patients and a visitor were killed. The Arakan Army (AA, which announced that it was rebranding as the Arakha Army in April) reported that two healthcare facilities sustained major damage in junta airstrikes in March and May, occurring in Rakhine State’s Myebon and Kyauktaw townships, respectively. Staff also had to abandon the La Ei hospital in Pekhon Township, southern Shan State, an area largely controlled by the Karenni Nationalities Defense Forces and their allies, due to the junta airstrikes in March. Functioning medical facilities are scarce in resistance-held territories, and information about hospitals’ and clinics’ locations is closely contained to prevent them from becoming targets of junta shelling and bombing. Map showing medical service sites targeted by junta airstrikes in Myanmar, January to June 2024. “We can’t disclose much information about the healthcare facilities in our areas. We have to treat it as confidential at the request of the medical teams,” said a representative of the Pale Township administrative team, which is affiliated with the NUG. People’s administrative and defence teams at the township and village tract levels are responsible for evacuating medical facilities and moving patients to safety when airstrikes or other emergencies occur in their areas, he added. Sagaing residents said that multiple modes of transit are necessary to reach healthcare facilities in wartorn areas. Most patients severely injured by airstrikes or shelling cannot survive the long and difficult journey, with some succumbing to blood loss on the way. “We need to travel approximately three to four hours to reach healthcare facilities,” a representative of a Sagaing Region People’s Administrative Team said. “And we have to move wounded patients to different locations due to insufficient capacity to treat all of them at once. It takes as much as 24 hours to reach healthcare facilities on some routes, depending on the state of the roads and safety conditions.” According to deputy health minister Dr. Shwe Pone, the NUG has allocated at least 15 billion kyat (US$ 3.75 million) to the healthcare sector to support the provision of medical services in what the NUG calls “liberated areas.” Some 4,900 healthcare workers are providing medical services in 77 hospitals, 377 clinics, and 250 mobile clinics operated by the NUG health ministry in these resistance-held territories.

Airstrikes on medical facilities hinder access to healthcare in Myanmar’s resistance-held areas

The attacks have aggravated patients’ difficulties in getting needed care in clinics and hospitals, which are sparsely distributed in “liberated areas” and have to maintain discretion about their locations

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