A Myanmar junta air strike killed at least 15 civilians and wounded 10 others at a market in a gold-mining area in northern Kachin state, a spokesman for an ethnic rebel group that controls the area said on Sunday.

The junta has been accused of carrying out multiple attacks on civilian targets as it struggles to quell resistance to its 2021 coup.

The latest attack happened around 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, Colonel Naw Bu, a spokesperson from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), said.

“All those killed were civilians including gold miners and local shopkeepers,” he said.

The KIA, which can call on around 7,000 fighters, has been battling the military for decades for autonomy and control of local resources in Kachin State.

The State is home to huge jade mines and rare heavy earth elements, most of which are exported to China.

Naw Bu said the attack took place in a mining area in Tanaing Township, in the western part of the state.

Images from local media showed a large crater in the middle of an area completely flattened and strewn with debris.

A resident from the town who declined to be named told AFP three of the 10 wounded had since died.

The KIA controls swathes of Christian-majority Kachin state — home to the world’s largest jade mines.

The region has seen heavy fighting in the wake of the 2021 putsch, with the junta accusing the KIA of arming and training the newer People’s Defence Forces that have sprung up to battle the junta.

Separately, the Arakan Army reported that the junta had dropped 15 bombs during three attacks Saturday on a public market in the town of Kyauktaw in Arakan State. It said some civilians had died and others were wounded, but did not specify how many.

The Arakan Army is engaged in a fierce fight with the military for control of Rakhine.

The junta could not be reached by AFP for comment.

This handout photo taken and released on January 9, 2025 by the Arakan Army (AA) ethnic minority armed group shows a man standing near a burning house at the site of a suspected air strike carried out by Myanmar’s military at Kyauk Ni Maw village in Ramree island in western Rakhine State.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A Myanmar junta air strike killed at least 40 people in a village in western Rakhine state, a rescue worker and ethnic minority armed group told AFP on Thursday (January 9, 2025).

The Arakan Army (AA) is engaged in a fierce fight with the military for control of Rakhine, where it has seized swathes of territory in the past year, all but cutting off the capital Sittwe.

The Rakhine conflict is one element of the bloody chaos that has engulfed Myanmar since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in a 2021 coup, sparking a widespread armed uprising.

AA spokesperson Khaing Thu Kha told AFP a military jet bombed Kyauk Ni Maw, on Ramree island, around 1:20 p.m. (0650 GMT) on Wednesday, starting a fire which engulfed more than 500 houses.

“According to initial reports, 40 innocent civilians were killed and 20 were wounded,” he said.

A member of a local rescue group whose team was helping people in the area told AFP that 41 people were killed and 52 wounded.

“At the moment, we don’t even have enough betadine and methylated spirit to treat them as the transportation is hard,” the rescue worker said on condition of anonymity to protect their safety.

Charred ruins

Photos of the aftermath of the bombing showed dazed residents walking through charred, smoking ruins, the ground littered with corrugated metal, trees stripped bare of leaves and buildings reduced to a few scraps of walls.

AFP has attempted to contact the junta for comment on the incident, but calls have not been answered.

Ramree island is home to a planned China-backed deep sea port that when completed will serve as a gateway for Beijing to the Indian Ocean, though construction has been stalled by the unrest.

The military is struggling to fight opposition to its rule on multiple fronts around the country and it has been regularly accused of using air and artillery strikes to hit civilian communities.

As well as youth-led “People’s Defence Forces” that emerged to oppose the coup, the military is also battling numerous long-established and well-armed ethnic minority armed groups, including the AA, which control large areas of territory along the country’s borders.

In November, the U.N. Development Programme warned that Rakhine was heading towards famine as fighting squeezed commerce and agricultural production.

The United Nations last week said that more than 3.5 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Myanmar – an increase of 1.5 million from last year.

The outlook for the coming year was “grim”, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said, with 19.9 million people – more than a third of the population – likely to need aid in 2025.