Guwahati: At least 19 students were killed in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state after a junta air strike targeted two private high schools, an ethnic armed group claimed on Saturday.
The Arakan Army (AA), which is fighting Myanmar’s military for control of Rakhine, said the attack occurred just after midnight on Friday in Kyauktaw township.
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According to its statement, the victims were aged between 15 and 21, while 22 others were injured.
“We feel as sad as the victims’ families for the death of the innocent students,” the AA said in a statement posted on Telegram, blaming the junta for the strike. The Myanmar military has not responded to requests for comment.
Local media outlet Myanmar Now reported that a junta warplane dropped two 500-pound bombs on the school as students slept.
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UNICEF condemned the incident, calling it a “brutal attack” and warning it reflected a “pattern of increasingly devastating violence in Rakhine State, with children and families paying the ultimate price.”
The AA has seized large areas of Rakhine over the past year amid intense fighting with the military. The conflict forms part of the wider turmoil that has engulfed Myanmar since the 2021 coup, when the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, sparking a nationwide armed resistance.
Internet and phone services remain disrupted in parts of Kyauktaw, making independent verification of the attack difficult.
Rights groups and local communities have repeatedly accused the junta of using air and artillery strikes against civilian populations as it struggles to contain opposition forces across the country.