At least four children were killed and more than 10 injured when Myanmar junta warplanes attacked a school in Karenni (Kayah) State’s Demoso Township on Monday.
Two fighter jets dropped two bombs and unleashed machinegun fire on the school in Dawsieei village at around 10 am, a volunteer from Demoso told the Irrawaddy.
The attack came despite no clashes between junta forces and resistance groups in the area, the volunteer said.
Dawsieei is around 10 miles west of Demoso town on the road to the Karenni State capital of Loikaw, which is now partly under the control of the Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF).
“The school teaches students from kindergarten to eighth grade. There are bomb shelters in the school compound to protect from junta airstrikes and shelling but the attack happened suddenly and the children had no time to take cover,” he said.
The bombing destroyed 90 percent of the school’s buildings, while many of the children injured in the attack are in serious condition, he added.
Dawsieei offers shelter to people displaced by fighting elsewhere, and the village school was being attended by both local and displaced children.
The warplanes also bombed the neighboring Demoso village of Loi Nan Hpa, but casualty figures from the attack are not yet known.
“The fighter jets flew over the village all morning and dropped bombs on the school, killing three children on the spot and injuring many more, but it’s difficult to give exact casualty figures,” Karenni Army spokesperson Ko Hpone Naing told the Irrawaddy.
Karenni State has been bombed heavily by the junta since the coup as residents launched an uprising against a military government they view as illegitimate.
The junta conducted over 160 artillery strikes and 76 airstrikes in Karenni State last year, killing over 180 civilians and injuring around 140, according to data from the Karenni Human Rights Group.
Fighting escalated after Karenni resistance forces launched Operation 1111 on Nov. 11 last year to drive junta troops and officials out of the state. So far, they have seized three towns – Moe Bye, Mese and Nan Mal Khone.
As of Jan.1 this year, junta airstrikes had destroyed 46 religious buildings, 22 schools, 14 hospitals and 2,281 homes, according to the advocacy group Progressive Karenni People.
About 350,000 people – or more than four-fifths of the 420,000 Karenni population – have fled their homes in three years of fierce fighting that followed the February 2021 coup, according to the state’s interim civilian government.
The number of civilians killed by junta shelling and airstrikes in the state surpassed 500 in the second week of January, of whom about 65% were women and children, according to the interim government.
