The death toll at the Depayin Township school targeted by Myanmar junta aircraft on Monday has risen to 24 after two more children died from their injuries.
The civilian National Unity Government (NUG) and witnesses claimed that the regime used widely banned cluster bombs to attack O Htein Twin village school in Sagaing Region.
Although Myanmar is not a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the targeting of a school constituted a war crime and violated international humanitarian law, according to analysts.
A total of 111 states have ratified the convention.
More than 100 pupils were studying at the NUG-run school. The child victims were aged between seven and 16 and two volunteer teachers in their early 20s were also killed. A total of 102 injuries have been reported. On Tuesday, two more children aged eight to 11 died of their injuries, a source told The Irrawaddy.
Photos show decapitated corpses and scattered body parts, making it impossible to recover their full bodies.
Injured children were pictured receiving treatment on the ground under trees, without proper medical care. Some had lost limbs or had bloody head wounds.
The civilian Human Rights Ministry said witnesses reported that the junta used two cluster munitions.
Ko Yay Nagar of Depayin People’s Defense Force, who inspected the site, told The Irrawaddy that the regime used cluster bombs because numerous small craters caused by bomblets cover the ground, concrete floors and walls of the school.
“Within a 100m radius, many small craters were found. If it had been a regular bomb, there would be one large crater,” he said.
Ko Yay Nagar said there had been no clashes in the area and no combatants were near the school.
Medic Daw Radi Ohm, who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement, told The Irrawaddy that she saw hundreds of small craters at the school and a nearby monastery. The former lecturer, who has visited several bomb sites in Sagaing Region, said she had never seen so many small craters before.
The photos seen by The Irrawaddy also show many craters at the bombed school.
The NUG’s Ministry of Education vowed that all junta personnel responsible would face legal consequences.
The civilian Human Rights Ministry stated on Tuesday that there have been 2,679 junta airstrikes since January 2023, in which 240 schools were damaged.
It said targeting children constituted a war crime and urged the international community, particularly the United Nations, to exert pressure on the junta to end attacks on civilians.
The regime denied responsibility for the airstrike while pro-military lobbyists claimed the attack targeted PDF “terrorists” who were manufacturing bombs in the school.
The junta conducted airstrikes on a church and school at Kanan on the Indian border in Tamu Township, Sagaing Region, in January last year, killing 17 people, including nine children, and injuring at least 19 others.
The regime denied responsibility, saying no aircraft were deployed at the time, although residents’ videos showed a junta warplane above the village during the incident.
Editor’s note: This story previously stated the death toll was 25, not 24. It was fixed on May 15, 2025.
