A junta airstrike on a school in a resistance stronghold in Sagaing Region’s Depayin Township on Monday killed at least 17 people, mostly students.
A fighter jet from Meiktila airbase dropped a 500 lb bomb on the school at O Htein Twin Village, where around 100 youngsters were studying, according to residents.
“The explosion was quite powerful,” a resident told The Irrawaddy. “By the time we heard the aircraft, the bomb had already dropped, so there was no time to escape, and many were killed and injured.”
A local education aid group said 17 people including several students were confirmed dead, and the death toll is expected to be higher. Around 30 others were injured, and some of them are in critical condition amid a lack of proper treatment in the area.
A photo released by local anti-regime activists shows the dead bodies of 11 students in school uniforms and a severed leg lying in the school grounds.
An official of the activist group Some Messages from Depayin told the Irrawaddy that the regime intentionally targeted the school as the township is under the administration of the parallel National Unity Government (NUG).
In September 2022, regime helicopter gunships also bombed the school of Let Yat Kone Village in Depayin, killing 13 people including seven children.
The junta declared a post-earthquake ceasefire until the end of May, but the NUG’s Human Rights Ministry on Monday said the regime conducted a total of 372 airstrikes across 13 states and regions between March 28 and May 9, killing 334 people and injuring 552 others.
