Victims of attack in Kachin state include children, according to media and local activists
More than 30 people, including young children, have been killed in an attack on a camp for displaced people in Myanmar’s Kachin state, according to media reports and two local activists.
Dozens more were injured in the attack, which happened at about 11.30pm on Monday night in Kachin, Myanmar’s northernmost state, it was reported. On social media, unverified images showed men carrying victims, including a small child, from rubble in the darkness.
A Kachin activist based in Laiza, who spoke anonymously, told the Guardian that 33 people had been killed, including 13 children. A three-month-old baby was among the victims, she said.
She added that the death toll could rise further because the area was very large and volunteers were still recovering bodies. The homes in the camps were built on mountains, she added, and so houses had become buried under the soil.
“Houses in the camp are very closed to each other, so the situation is totally messed up,” she said, adding that the attack was just the latest in the military’s “inhumane acts”.
“There are many cases like this, this is not the only case,” she said.
The attack took place at Mung Lai Hkyet IDP camp, a few kilometres from a military camp run by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of many groups fighting against Myanmar’s military junta, which seized power in 2021.
The area, near the border with China, has seen frequent armed clashes over recent months. The UN has warned of limited humanitarian access in Kachin State and many other areas of the country, describing a dire level of need.
A second Kachin activist based in Laiza, who spoke to the Guardian from a hospital that was treating the injured, said the military had attacked the camp with an airstrike and heavy artilleries.
