This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
A Myanmar junta airstrike on a hospital in the west of the country has killed four people, including patients and staff, and wounded 15, a rebel group told Radio Free Asia on Friday.
The Thursday strike hit a hospital in Chin state’s Mindat township, the anti-junta People’s Administration in the region said.
The state, bordering India, has seen a surge of violence since the Myanmar military staged a coup in early 2021, with junta forces accused of frequently razing villages of the largely Christian minority and persecution, including the planting of landmines.
“They dropped six 150-pound bombs. The hospital was totally destroyed,” Yaw Man, a spokesperson for the anti-junta People’s Administration Team in the region, told RFA. “There are 15 wounded, four dead.”
The four dead in the attack on the Vawmm’tu Hospital in Vawmm village, about 48 km (30 miles) from Mindat township, were men between the ages of 20 and 30, he said. Other communities in the region were also attacked by junta aircraft but the extent of casualties and damage was not immediately known, he added.
A call by RFA to Chin state’s junta spokesperson, Aung Cho, went unanswered.
On April 2, five people were killed and many wounded in Auk Chaing village, in the same township, in a junta air attack.
According to data compiled by RFA, junta airstrikes have killed 397 people and wounded 889 nationwide from January to March this year, including attacks on civilians and during battles with anti-junta forces.
