The Myanmar military junta has continued to launch deadly
airstrikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure,
including religious structures sheltering people displaced
by the recent earthquake, despite declaring two temporary
ceasefires that began on April 2 and ended April 30, 2025,
said Fortify Rights today. The U.N. Security Council should
immediately impose an embargo on aviation fuel and weapons
to the Myanmar military junta to prevent further attacks on
civilians, and it should ensure unfettered humanitarian aid
for all in need.
“The Myanmar junta’s so-called
ceasefire is a sham,” said Sai Arkar, Human Rights
Associate at Fortify Rights. “Since April 2, the military
junta has intensified its deadly airstrikes, including in
earthquake-hit areas, killing civilians, even children.
These attacks show blatant disregard for human life and
international law.”
The 7.7 magnitude earthquake on
March 28 reportedly killed more than 3,700 people, flattened
communities, and destroyed infrastructure throughout
Myanmar, particularly in Mandalay and Sagaing regions. After
opening fire on a Chinese aid convoy on April 1, the
military junta said it would observe a temporary ceasefire
to facilitate earthquake-related humanitarian
aid.
After four years of nationwide armed conflict,
there are more than 3.5 million internally displaced people
in Myanmar, and tens of millions are in desperate need of
humanitarian aid.
In April 2025, Fortify Rights spoke
with nine individuals—four civilians and five members of
resistance organizations—who survived, witnessed, or
observed the aftermath of airstrikes carried out by the
Myanmar junta since the earthquake.
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On April 19, 2025,
at approximately 1:10 p.m., the Myanmar military junta
conducted an aerial attack on Yae Htwet village in
Thabeikkyin Township, Mandalay Region, following the
Thingyan Water Festival—a significant cultural event and
new year celebration. The National Unity Government of
Myanmar (NUG) said the attack involved two large air-dropped
bombs, resulting in the deaths of at least 32 individuals,
including women and children.
A member of a People’s
Defence Force (PDF) unit who participated in rescue efforts
in Yae Htwet village, extinguishing fires and searching for
the deceased, told Fortify Rights: “Upon our arrival at
the scene, we recovered approximately ten bodies. Several
were unidentifiable due to the extent of the injuries, with
many others dismembered, necessitating the collection of
human remains.” He said rescue operations took place on
April 19 and 20, 2025, and that at least 45 civilians
sustained injuries as a result of the attack. Fortify Rights
is unaware of any legitimate military targets in Yae Htwet
village.
In Sagaing Region, which was an
earthquake-affected area, the Myanmar junta carried out
numerous airstrikes, including in Tabayin, Shwebo, and Kani
townships. On April 23, 2025, just one day after the junta
announced an eight-day extension to the 20-day ceasefire, a
resident of Let Hloke village in Tabayin Township in Sagaing
Region told Fortify Rights how a junta airstrike hit his
village after 10:30 a.m., killing five people, including a
13-year-old child. He said: “A [junta] aircraft attacked
[the village] … without having any military offensives or
battles. … Five people died, and five were injured. …
Only civilians were affected.”
The same resident
identified the victims killed as a 13-year-old girl, Jay Oo;
Daw Saung, an 80-year-old woman; Aung Kyaw Kyaw, a
26-year-old man; San Zaw, a 45-year-old man; and Lone, a
40-year-old woman.
A resistance fighter from Kani
Township in Sagaing Region told Fortify Rights that between
April 8 and 19, approximately 31 aerial attacks occurred,
with the highest number recorded on April 14. He
said:
[April 14] was Thingyan Ah Kya day [the start of
the water festival]. It was the holiday. There were a total
of 24 attacks from the sky on this day, and they used five
different methods: jet fighter, MI-35, Y12 aircraft, Yellow
Cat UAV drone, and paramotor. The attack started at 7:30 in
the morning [and] didn’t stop until 10:30 a.m. … It was
raining bombs. They didn’t seem to have a specific target,
just dropping bombs like rain.
He said the junta
attacked five locations on April 14: Tha Min Chan monastery,
Mu Htaw village, Nat Gyi village, Su Lay Kone village, and
Ta Yaung village. The attacks allegedly killed a Buddhist
monk and a 21-year-old woman, injured three novice monks, a
nun, and destroyed civilian homes, a monastery, a school
building, and a cowshed. He added:
These are all
attacks in civilian areas. … The attacks on April 11 and
12 … happened after the clashes [on the ground]. … But
the rest of the airstrikes are indiscriminate. They are just
dropping bombs without really being sure where they are
dropping them. The military really has no presence or
control on the ground in Kani Township, so they are
displaying that, regardless of what’s happening on the
ground, they can still dominate from the sky.
Many of
the junta’s airstrikes since the earthquake have struck
Buddhist monasteries, Christian churches, and Muslim
mosques—areas where civilians have sought shelter after
their homes were damaged in the earthquake. For example, in
Mandalay Region’s Aidaing village, a military junta
airstrike on April 21 hit a monastery sheltering a mobile
medical team treating recent earthquake victims. The
airstrike reportedly injured six people, including monks and
residents.
Junta airstrikes reportedly hit at least
three Christian churches in the predominantly Christian Chin
State during the Easter week religious period, when large
crowds of Christians attend church services. On Palm Sunday,
the Myoma Baptist Church in Mindat was bombed and destroyed.
A few days earlier, on April 8, Christ the King Catholic
Church in Falam was hit by Myanmar junta airstrikes, and an
Assembly of God church in Mindat was struck the next day on
April 9.
Before Easter, on April 4, 2025,
shortly after the ceasefire began, the Myanmar military
junta launched an attack with an airstrike and mortars on
Piking Kaw Khu village in southern Shan State on the border
with Karenni State, killing five
civilians.
A witness to the aftermath of
the attack shared photographs of the destroyed buildings and
dead with Fortify Rights. He said: “On April 4, in the
morning, around 9 a.m., mortars hit the village. They were
120mm rounds. It killed one person. … I saw the aftermath
and the destroyed buildings.”
The man who died, U
Khu Lu, was a 54-year-old village resident.
In the
afternoon, around 2 p.m., the same village was hit with an
airstrike, killing four civilians. Fortify Rights could not
verify all the names of those killed in the
airstrike.
A representative from Burma War Crimes
Investigation—a human rights group led by Myanmar human
rights defenders—who documented the attack on April 4,
told Fortify Rights: “We can confirm the junta targeted a
civilian area [on April 4]. … This military operation
reflects a deliberate strategy by the Myanmar military to
target civilians through airstrikes, despite the
ceasefire.”
A representative of the Interim
Executive Council, the state-level government in Karenni
State resisting the military junta, told Fortify Rights:
“The junta is still bombing civilian areas [in Karenni and
southern Shan states]. Since the ceasefire, the junta has
targeted civilian areas and killed at least 15 people. This
is unacceptable.”
Fortify Rights also documented
numerous attacks by the military junta on PDF’s positions
throughout Myanmar, some of which resulted in PDF
fatalities. However, for military security reasons, the PDF
sources interviewed would not disclose locations and dates
for those attacks, citing the fear of being targeted for
future attacks. Even if those attacks involved legitimate
military targets, they would still constitute violations of
the junta’s self-declared nationwide ceasefire.
The
U.N. Human Rights Office reported that the junta has carried
out more than 120 attacks since it announced a
“ceasefire” starting on April 2. These attacks
reportedly affected at least 51 townships in Myanmar,
including areas devastated by the earthquake.
On April
10, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said in a
statement:
Unfortunately, but
unsurprisingly, it [the Myanmar junta] has chosen to violate
its own ceasefire, launching dozens of new attacks with
devastating results. … The Security Council should
urgently consider a resolution that demands that all parties
to the conflict in Myanmar cease offensive military
operations and that the junta immediately end its human
rights violations and obstruction of humanitarian relief
efforts.
On February 1, 2021, the Myanmar
military launched a deadly
coup d’état , killing untold numbers of
civilians and imprisoning tens of thousands of others in a
bid to secure nationwide political power. The junta’s
attacks against civilians continue and amount to crimes
against humanity and war crimes, said Fortify
Rights.
International humanitarian law—also known as
the laws of war—is applicable to the revolution in
Myanmar, which constitutes a non-international armed
conflict. In particular, the Geneva Conventions set forth
fundamental rules regulating armed conflict conduct. Under
the laws of war, parties involved in the conflict are
required to distinguish between, on the one hand, civilians
and “civilian objects” (such as homes and hospitals that
are not being used for military purposes) and, on the other
hand, combatants and “military objectives.” The laws of
war expressly prohibit both direct attacks and
indiscriminate attacks that target civilians and civilian
objects. Violations of these laws can amount to war crimes,
and those responsible may be subject to
prosecution.
“The Myanmar junta’s ongoing attacks on
civilians during an earthquake disaster are flagrant and
lawless,” said Sai Arkar. “The international community must
act decisively to stop the junta’s access to weapons and
aviation fuel before more lives are
lost.”
