Myanmar’s junta violence, atrocities and bombings have claimed 1,076 civilian lives in the first half of this year, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
In retaliation for battlefield losses, the junta has escalated airstrikes and shelling of non-military targets, such as villages, schools, hospitals, markets, displacement camps and religious sites resulting in mounting civilian deaths.
The AAPP, the activist group which monitors junta arrests and killings, said this year until June 30, Sagaing Region witnessed the highest number of deaths with 313, followed by Rakhine State with 259 fatalities.
Junta shelling caused 318 deaths and airstrikes claimed 308 lives, it said.
The AAPP reported that 348 of those killed were female, 15 members of religious orders were among the dead and 30 were from the education sector.
The regime arrested nearly 27,000 civilians and killed over 5,300 people since the 2021 coup, according to the AAPP.
Myanmar’s anti-regime ambassador to the United Nations, U Kyaw Moe Tun, wrote to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about civilian suffering in Myanmar on June 27.
“I would like to reiterate again that the people of Myanmar desperately need immediate and decisive action from the international community,” he wrote.
U Kyaw Moe Tun called on the international community to cut the flow of weapons, jet fuel and money to the junta, which would immediately save lives in Myanmar.
“Decisive timely action from the UN, in particular the UN Security Council, is well overdue…I with a very heavy heart appeal to the international community in particular the Security Council to take concrete action now to save the lives of the people of Myanmar by putting humanity first,” the ambassador said.
