The first of the 250-pound bombs to hit the ethnic Chin village on Sunday morning landed near the church where residents of many of the more than 2,000 homes in the village were worshipping, officials said.
After the last bomb exploded in Kanan, at least 17 people, including six children, had been killed.
The village in western Sagaing Region near the border with India is separated from Khampat town by a creek. The town has been under the control of the People’s Defense Forces since November.
Six children – two under the age of 10 and four between 10 and 16 years old – were among the 17 people killed by the 250-pound bombs dropped on the village, according to the Tamu Township Board of Education.
About 30 more people were wounded.
Four bombs hit the compound of the village school, a board spokesperson said, explaining that they followed the first bomb that landed near the church.
“It was the first Sunday of the New Year so they were at church. They ran in panic before the second bomb was dropped. It landed amid civilian homes and caused many casualties,” the spokesperson told The Irrawaddy.
He called on the international community to act as soon as possible, saying Myanmar’s military was committing “genocide.”
In December, a junta general told leaders of ethnic groups at peace talks in China that Myanmar jets would continue to bomb ethnic areas the junta’s military had lost control of.
Salia Lian Pi, a spokesperson for the Chin National Organization of the Upper Chindwin Region, said about eight homes in the village were destroyed by the bombs.
The injured have not been allowed to enter Kalay town for treatment, Salia Lian Pi said. The head of Kalay Town Regional Operation Command is not allowing them to enter the town, he quoted local residents as saying. They are receiving treatment at two sites that lack the medicine and medical equipment required to care for them, Salai Lian Pi told The Irrawaddy.
The junta also bombed an ethnic T’ang village on Sunday.
Two children were among the six people killed when a 500-pound bomb hit Myo Thit village at about 3 p.m., according to the Ta’ang Women’s Organization. The village is located in northern Shan State’s Namhsan Township.
The Ta’ang Women’s Organization said no fighting had taken place in the area recently. The two children killed were brothers. They were the sons of a teacher who was also killed in the blast, the organization said. Three other residents of the village were also killed in the explosion, it said.
People have been fleeing the village since the 500-pound bomb was dropped on it, the organization said.
