Students, disabled woman killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes on schools in Chin State

Junta airstrikes on two schools in southern Chin State’s Mindat Township late Wednesday killed three students and a disabled woman and injured more than 20 others, according to local sources. The schools, in the villages of Htinchaung and Vawmm’Tu, were bombed at around 7pm, the sources said. All of the victims were in Htinchaung, where many war-displaced students board at the school. The village is about eight miles east of the town of Mindat, near the border between Chin State and Magway Region. “There were many displaced people staying there before. Then it became a school for displaced kids, with many of them living there,” said Yaw Man, spokesperson for the Mindat Township People’s Administration Organisation. “They study there, they live there, so when the airstrike happened, three students and a disabled woman were killed,” he added, noting that most of the injured were also students. There were nearly 200 students enrolled at the school, which teaches from primary to high school level. The Vawmm’Tu village school after it was hit by a junta airstrike on October 8 (Photo: HKL) No casualties were reported at the school in Vawmm’Tu—located about 20 miles north of Mindat—because there were no students there at the time of the attack, Yaw Man said. Resistance forces captured Mindat late last year, and have since established administrative control over the town and the surrounding area. Junta positions still operating in the township are frequent targets of attack. Most of southern Chin State, including Mindat, Kanpetlet, Matupi, and Paletwa townships, is now under the control of ethnic resistance forces opposed to Myanmar’s military regime. Unable to retake any of this lost territory, the junta continues to carry out a campaign of airstrikes on schools and other buildings administered by the resistance. The constant threat of aerial attacks has prevented most residents from returning to Mindat. Since the end of September, the junta has conducted seven airstrikes in and around the town, according to Yaw Man. Nationwide, the military conducted more than 3,000 airstrikes, killing 1,487 civilians, in the first eight months of this year, according to the National Unity Government.

Students, disabled woman killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes on schools in Chin State

The attacks on two schools in resistance-held Mindat Township killed four civilians and injured more than 20

Subscribe for full access

After 100 days of ‘civilian’ rule, Myanmar remains a bastion of oppression

‘We cannot write as before’: Women poets of Myanmar’s Spring Revolution

Sent to die: Myanmar’s conscripts caught between a junta’s war and a nation’s collapse

Magway emerges as key front in junta’s strategy to claw back control of western Myanmar

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles

Ethnic armed groups say ASEAN envoy meeting was not dialogue with Myanmar junta

Flooding compounds humanitarian crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State as aid needs grow

MNDAA hands 41 POWs to Myanmar junta in Lashio amid ongoing talks

Myanmar resistance resumes attacks north of Mandalay as junta expands offensives to the south