UN says ‘alarmed’ by deadly Myanmar air strikes against Rohingya Muslims

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is “alarmed” by reports of ongoing airstrikes in Myanmar that have killed more than 20 civilians in Rakhine State's Minbya township on Monday, a UN spokesperson said.  

“The expansion of conflict in (predominantly Muslim) Rakhine State is driving displacement and exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities and discrimination,” the spokesperson said.

“[The UN Secretary-General] is alarmed by reports of ongoing airstrikes by the military, including today in Minbya township that reportedly killed and injured many civilians.

There have been violent confrontations in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state following an "attack"  on security forces in November, which marked the end of a ceasefire that had been mostly observed since the military coup in 2021.

“The Secretary-General calls on all parties to prevent further incitement of communal tensions,” the spokesperson added.

Minbya township in Rakhine is one of the locations where the air strikes are taking place and experienced heavy clashes between the military junta’s armed wing, Tatmadaw, and the Arakan Army (AA) during the war in Myanmar, and came under full control of the Arakans last month.

The Monday airstrike hit the Muslim-majority village of Thar Dar around 1:45 am after a fighter jet dropped bombs, killing 10 men, four women, and 10 children, one resident told AFP, while another resident, asking for anonymity, said 23 people had been killed in the blast and 18 wounded.

“The jet fighter fired continuously and dropped bombs which killed 20 villagers on the spot. Three of 15 injured villagers later died in the hospital,” said a resident.

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“There was no fighting in our village and they bombed us,” said the resident, asking for anonymity for security reasons.

According to reports, Mawlawi U Hasa Nali (60), a Muslim religious scholar along with his wife and three children died in the incident.

The AA has gained control over Pauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, and Ponnagyun townships, where the junta has been carrying out daily airstrikes using jet fighters. These airstrikes have been intentionally aimed at residential areas and villages.

The AA represents one of the numerous armed ethnic minority factions situated in Myanmar’s border regions.

These groups have been engaged in conflicts with the military since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. The primary reasons for these clashes are centered around the pursuit of autonomy and control over valuable resources.

The Muslim-minority Rohingya community has been subjected to persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar for decades. Nearly a million of them have fled their homes following a military-led genocide in 2017.

Close to a million Rohingya refugees are currently residing in overcrowded camps located in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, which shares a border with Myanmar, while many seeking asylum have scattered throughout neighboring countries like India.

The military leaders in Myanmar consider the Rohingya people as outsiders and have refused to grant them citizenship.

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