More than 513 women have been killed and 3,390 detained by Myanmar’s junta since the February 2021 coup, according to the Burmese Women’s Union.
It said at least 55 women were killed and 43 were detained during April, the group said, including 45 victims from the Pazi Gyi village bombing in Kantbalu Township, Sagaing Region, on April 11.
Of the detainees, 819 were sentenced to imprisonment, according to the group citing the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) rights group, which monitors killings and arrests junta activities, and media reports.
More than 3,400 civilians had been killed and more than 17,000 political prisoners remain in detention, the AAPP stated.
Female artists, activists, politicians, peaceful protesters and journalists have been killed and detained since the 2021 coup.
Khin Myo Chit, six, was shot dead while in her father’s arms when junta troops barged into her house in Chanmyathazi Township, Mandalay, in March 2021.
That month, Kyal Sin, 19, was shot dead in Mandalay by junta troops while she protested against the military takeover.
A five-year-old was killed when her nursery was shelled in Demoso Township, Kayah State, in November 2022.
Three Tar Taing villagers were raped and killed in a junta massacre in the resistance stronghold of Sagaing Region on March 1 and 2.
Last month the junta detained two female artists and singers for changing their Facebook profile pictures to mourn the Pazi Gyi airstrike victims.
Ethnic-minority women in resistance strongholds are often targeted, facing arbitrary arrests, killing, airstrikes and shelling by the junta.
The Kayan Women’s Organization stated that at least five women were killed and 12 injured in shelling in Kayah State during February and March.
Tom Andrews, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva last year that war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed every day with impunity by the junta.
