Myanmar military continues airstrikes on hospitals and clinics in Chin State

Myanmar’s military carried out two more airstrikes on healthcare facilities in southern Chin State on Sunday, including one on a hospital already destroyed by an aerial assault late last week. The attacks, on a clinic in the village of Lun Don in Kanpetlet Township and a hospital in Wammathu, a village in Mindat Township, took place within minutes of each other, according to the local anti-junta administration. “The first airstrike on the clinic in Lun Don took place at around 1:30pm and was followed by one on the Wammathu hospital at around 1:33pm. It’s obvious they were targeting clinics and hospitals,” said the information officer for the Kanpetlet Township People’s Administration Team. The regime also bombed the hospital in Wammathu on the evening of April 25, killing five people and injuring more than a dozen others. Most of the victims were patients. The ruins of the Wammathu hospital seen on April 27 (Salai Naing Hung) No casualties were reported in Sunday’s attacks, as the targeted facilities were not in operation at the time. The airstrikes were seen as the junta’s response to resistance efforts to capture the town of Kyindwe in Kanpetlet Township, which has been repeatedly attacked by anti-regime forces since late December of last year. A statement released by a group called the Chin Brothers said that the Arakan Army (AA) has offered to help take control of Kyindwe, which is about 20 miles southwest of the town of Kanpetlet. The AA already controls Paletwa Township in southern Chin State, which borders Rakhine State. The group has been waging a major offensive in the region since last November. Chinland Defence Force troops seen in Kanpetlet in 2022 (CDF Kanpetlet) According to Salai Yaw Man, the information officer for the Mindat Township People’s Administration Team, last week’s attack on the hospital in Wammathu destroyed not only the patients’ ward, but also an outbuilding used to store medicine and other supplies, including fuel. “Entire buildings crumbled because the walls, which were 8 to 10 inches thick, and the roofs were both full of holes. The metal frameworks collapsed, and we had to pull the survivors out of that mess,” he said. The hospital was staffed by employees who had left their government health services posts as part of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) that followed Myanmar’s 2021 coup. It was known as one of the few facilities in the region that had the equipment and capacity to carry out complicated procedures. All of the hospital’s equipment was destroyed by the airstrike, said Salai Yaw Man, who added that junta troops from Infantry Battalion 274, based in Mindat, also fired on it with heavy artillery at least 50 times. “The situation has gotten very hard in the past couple of weeks, and is only getting worse,” he said. The ruins of the Wammathu hospital seen on April 27 (Salai Naing Hung) Despite these challenges, he said, the resistance forces are determined to rebuild as soon as they can. “We’re going to build two small operating rooms and move the inpatient ward to a safer location. The doctors will be on duty on a roster and will not be stationed in just one place anymore,” he said, estimating that the total cost would be around 150 million kyat (around US$71,500). This would include not just buildings, but also new ambulances, generators, beds, surgical instruments, and other equipment, he said. According to the shadow National Unity Government’s health ministry, Myanmar’s military council has destroyed 340 public clinics and hospitals and killed 104 healthcare service providers since seizing power in February 2021. The military has also conducted 14 airstrikes in Mindat since the beginning of 2024.

Myanmar military continues airstrikes on hospitals and clinics in Chin State

A pair of junta airstrikes carried out on Sunday targeted a clinic and a hospital that had already been destroyed late last week

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