Children among nine killed in junta airstrikes on Rakhine resort town

Attacks by the Myanmar air force killed four children and five other civilians in the coastal town of Ngapali in Rakhine State’s Thandwe Township on Monday, according to local rescue workers and residents. Junta aircraft bombed Ngapali’s Lin Thar Ward and the village of Kyin Kan Gyi, killing eight people instantly and injuring one woman who died later while undergoing medical treatment. Of the 14 people injured, eight are in critical condition, a Ngapali resident said. The strikes on these residential areas began around 8pm on the day after the military regime held an election in 102 of Myanmar’s townships that has been widely dismissed as a sham organised by the junta to justify its claim to legitimacy. The junta was able to organise elections in only three of Rakhine State’s 17 townships, as the rest including Thandwe remain under the control of the Arakan Army, an anti-junta, Rakhine ethnic armed group. Victims, rescue efforts On Tuesday morning, around 12 hours after the bombs fell, rescue workers pulled a three-year-old girl, Aye Thandar Tun, out of the smouldering debris of her home. “We thought she was dead but found her at around 8am on Tuesday,” a rescuer said. “She had minor leg injuries. Her mother had been killed on the spot and her father is still unconscious and being held in a hospital." Three-year-old survivor rescued from the debris of her destroyed home A resident of Kyin Kan Gyi recalled that the junta’s aircraft made two passes over the village and dropped four bombs, forcing people to prostrate themselves on the ground to avoid being hit. “I don’t understand why they are attacking civilians,” he remarked. “This is a violation of the Geneva Conventions; it is a mass killing.” The airstrikes destroyed at least 23 homes and damaged an ice factory in Ngapali, which is home to a famous beach and resort that were once among Myanmar’s most popular attractions. There were four children among the dead, aged four, 10, 12, and 15. The victims also included people displaced by conflict who had sought refuge in Thandwe. “We didn’t hear anything when the first bomb fell,” another survivor of the airstrikes said. “We only took cover only when we heard the warplane coming back for the second strike. We live in constant fear as the military keeps bombing the areas where we live.” Retaliation The Arakan Army took full control of Thandwe and Ngapali—Thandwe Township’s second-largest town—in September 2024, forcing the Myanmar military out of the luxury resort and hotel properties they had been occupying. Many of the properties belonged to high-ranking officers in the Myanmar military. According to the most recently available data from Myanmar’s General Administration Department, which operates within the military-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs, Thandwe Township had a population of more than 100,000 in 2019 and was home to nearly four dozen hotels. Ngapali Beach in 2007 Because they occurred soon after the first phase of the junta’s managed elections on Sunday, Ngapali residents believe the attacks were intended as retaliation against the AA and local civilian communities suspected of supporting the group. Thandwe remains under the AA’s control and was not among the three townships in the state where the regime was able to hold elections. All three of them—Sittwe, Kyaukphyu, and Manaung—participated in the first phase of the vote on Sunday. “Now that the junta election is over, the situation may become worse than before," a woman living in Thandwe Township said. Some civilians who fled the fighting in Ngapali Township last year as the AA was taking control have gone back, but the continuing risk of airstrikes has deterred most from returning home. The Humanitarian and Development Coordination Office of the Arakan People’s Revolutionary Government, a body established by the AA, released a statement on Tuesday accusing the junta of systematically targeting civilian populations. “These acts are not isolated incidents but planned, repeated attacks that constitute a humanitarian crisis. They pose a grave threat to and devastate the lives, security, and homes of innocent civilians,” the statement said. The office called on the international community to take appropriate action against the military regime. The Ngapali strike is the latest in a series of mass casualty attacks in Rakhine State. Airstrikes killed eight and injured 16 in a Kyaukphyu Township village on December 11 and a 55-year-old displaced woman in Thandwe Township two weeks later. The junta air force’s bombing of the Mrauk-U District General Hospital on December 10—International Human Rights Day—killed 33 people and injured 76. According to data released by the Arakan Army (AA) earlier this month, 1,152 civilians were killed and 2,153 injured between November 2023 and November 2025. In addition, more than 1,000 Rakhine residents remain in custody after being detained by military authorities. Fire damage in Ngapali following the airstrikes (Photo: Supplied)

Children among nine killed in junta airstrikes on Rakhine resort town

Locals believed the Myanmar military, which has lost control of the township where the attack took place along with many valuable properties there, executed the bombing raid as a form of retaliation

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