Junta attacks kill 37 children in six months: rights group

By Admin 13 Jul 2024

DMG Newsroom
13 July 2024, Sittwe

Amid the raging military conflict in Arakan State, children lack physical and psychological security and face daily threats to their lives.

With the intensity of the fighting, children are living with trauma due to junta artillery attacks and airstrikes on civilian areas, guardians said.

Thirty-seven children under the age of 18 died at the hands of Myanmar’s military regime during the six-month period from January 1 to June 30, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said in a report on July 11.

“We have no security guarantee. We are afraid of junta artillery attacks and airstrikes. Children are more fearful,” said a displaced woman in Thandwe Township.

There were reportedly 23 clashes between the military and Arakkha Army (AA) in Arakan State in the two weeks from June 19 to July 2.

Myanmar’s military regime, facing significant battlefield losses, is increasingly targeting civilians with airstrikes and artillery attacks.

“Although there are no more junta soldiers in the area, we are still afraid of the regime airstrikes,” said a local man from Yoetayoke Village in Ponnagyun Township.

The regime often conducts airstrikes on Arakan State townships held by the AA such as Pauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Rathedaung, Buthidaung, Ramree and Myebon.

“My son is 5 years old, and when he sleeps at night, if he hears a loud noise, his eyes widen and he runs away in fear. Even when he hears the sound of cars and motorbikes, he is afraid because he thinks a jet fighter is coming,” said the father of a child from Kyauktaw.

Myanmar signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, and enacted the Child Rights Law on July 23, 2019. The military has nonetheless launched attacks repeatedly on civilian populations that almost invariably include child victims.

It has been eight months since fighting between the military and AA resumed in Arakan State on November 13, 2023. The AA is currently pressing its battlefield advantage and fierce clashes are reported in Thandwe, Ann and Maungdaw townships.