Myanmar junta blocking aid to survivors of deadly Chaung-U airstrikes

Myanmar’s military is obstructing efforts to assist victims of a deadly aerial assault that it carried out in Sagaing Region’s Chaung-U Township on Monday, according to resistance forces and rescue workers. The incident, which occurred during a candlelight protest held to coincide with a major Buddhist holiday, killed at least 19 people, including three children, and injured dozen of others, the National Unity Government (NUG) said on Wednesday. “We are doing our best to help, but we are having trouble getting medical supplies. After the junta bombed and killed people, they blocked roads and set up checkpoints to prevent medicine from getting in,” an officer of the anti-regime People’s Defence Organisation told Myanmar Now. The military began blocking the flow of goods into resistance strongholds in Sagaing Region early last month, meaning that medicine and medical equipment were already in short supply before the attack. “Some pharmacies only display empty bottles with no medicine inside,” a Chaung-U resident involved in the rescue effort said, adding that taking the injured to urban areas is also problematic. “People are afraid of being arrested, so it’s very difficult for health workers, patients, and other civilians to go to the city for treatment.” Monday’s attack took place during a Buddhist sermon held at the primary school in Bonto, a village located about 10 miles west of the town of Chaung-U, on the eastern bank of the Chindwin River. Villagers had assembled there after holding a protest that used the occasion of the full moon day of the traditional Burmese month of Thadingyut—marking the end of the three-month Buddhist lent period—to express opposition to elections to be held by the military junta at the end of the year. According to a statement issued by the NUG’s Ministry of Human Rights, more than half of the 40 people who were severely injured in the attack were children under the age of 18. Another statement released by the Sagaing Region Strike Force, a local resistance group, said that the deceased included two prominent political activists, Chan Nyein Aung and Nyi Nyi Zaw, both from the Monywa-Ahmyint Road Strike Committee. Bonto is located less than 15 miles south of Monywa, the junta-controlled capital of Sagaing Region. The city also hosted a large-scale event on the same day as the devastating attack on Bonto. According to data collected by the NUG, the regime carried out a total of more than 3,000 airstrikes around the country in the first eight months of 2025, killing 1,487 civilians.

Myanmar junta blocking aid to survivors of deadly Chaung-U airstrikes

At least 40 people were injured in the attack, more than half of them under the age of 18

Subscribe for full access

Beyond the iron bars: Into a broader world of confinement

Burned, beaten, and hunted: Myanmar worker survives alleged torture in Thailand

In Myanmar’s heartland, desperation fuels a shadow trade in stolen identities

How the global fuel crisis is upending Myanmar’s rice supply chain

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles

TNLA denies reports of pressure to withdraw from captured towns

The man in the black hat: Myanmar junta chief’s closest crony resurfaces on India trip

Five civilians dead as Myanmar junta forces advance in Bago’s Okpho Township

Beyond the iron bars: Into a broader world of confinement