Myanmar opposition says junta killed at least 17 in school airstrike
Myanmar's shadow government said an airstrike by the ruling junta had killed at least 17 students and injured 20 others at a school in an opposition-controlled area on Monday, despite a ceasefire being in place after a devastating earthquake.
The school, which is operated by the shadow National Unity Government, is in the central Myanmar town of Depayin in the Sagaing region, about 160 km (100 miles) north of Mandalay and not far from the epicenter of the March 28 earthquake.
'According to the information we have so far, 17 students have been killed and 20 injured,' NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt said.
'Some may have been missing due to bomb damage, so the death toll could be higher,' NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt said.
Myanmar has been gripped by conflict since the military used lethal force to suppress protests against its return to power in a 2021 coup. The military has been struggling to govern and has lost ground in its battle to stem a rebellion by ethnic minority armies and a resistance movement affiliated with the NUG.
A spokesperson for the junta declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Last week, the junta said it was extending a post-quake ceasefire to May 31. It had initially announced the ceasefire in early April, days after the earthquake, to support relief efforts, following similar moves by anti-junta armed groups.
Military airstrikes and artillery attacks have continued in some parts of Myanmar despite the ceasefire announcement. The NUG includes remnants of the elected administration deposed by the military in the coup and other anti-junta groups.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
19 hours ago
- Arab News
Six-year-old girl among Myanmar group arrested for killing retired general
Myanmar's military has arrested a six-year-old child as part of a group it labelled 'terrorists' for the daytime killing of a retired military officer and diplomat last month, a junta-run newspaper reported on Friday. Cho Htun Aung, 68, a retired brigadier general who also served as an ambassador, was shot dead in Myanmar's commercial capital of Yangon on May 22, in one of the highest profile assassinations in a country in the throes of a widening civil war. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup, overthrowing an elected government led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and triggering widespread protests. The junta's violent crackdown on dissent sparked an unprecedented nationwide uprising. A collection of established ethnic armies and new armed groups have wrested away swathes of territory from the well-armed military, and guerrilla-style fighting has erupted even in urban areas like Yangon. 'A total of 16 offenders — 13 males and three females — were arrested,' the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported. In an accompanying graphic, the newspaper carried the image of the six-year-old child, identified as the daughter of the alleged assassin. Her face was blurred in an online version of the newspaper seen by Reuters, but visible in other social media posts made by junta authorities. A junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment. Golden Valley Warriors, an anti-junta insurgent group, said they killed the retired general because of his continued support for military operations, including attacks on civilians, according to a May 22 statement. The junta claims the group is backed by the National Unity Government — a shadow government comprising of remnants of Suu Kyu's ousted administration that is battling the military — and paid an assassin some 200,000 Myanmar Kyat ($95.52) for a killing, the state newspaper reported. NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt denied the shadow government had made any such payments. 'It is not true that we are paying people to kill other people,' he told Reuters. Since the coup, Myanmar's junta has arrested over 29,000 people, including more than 6,000 women and 600 children, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, an activist group. Fatalities among civilians and pro-democracy activists verified by AAPP during this period amount to more than 6,700, including 1,646 women and 825 children.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Arab News
Cuban students call boycott over mobile tariff hikes
HAVANA: Cuban students called for a boycott of classes Wednesday over new mobile Internet tariffs that include steep fees for those who exceed their monthly data limits. Cubans say the tariff hikes implemented by state telecoms company Etecsa on May 30 will leave them with only a few gigabytes of data per month as purchasing additional data will be prohibitively expensive. Students have been particularly angered by the new pricing system, under which top-ups must be paid in hard-to-come-by-dollars or at a steep increment in Cuban pesos. While acknowledging 'progress' in negotiations with Etecsa, student union president Jose Almedia told AFP: 'We want more.' On Tuesday evening, student leaders at the University of Havana's mathematics and informatics faculty called for a boycott of classes in order to try to force Etecsa to annul the tariff hikes. Fellow leaders of the union chapter in the philosophy, history and sociology faculty backed the boycott, as did some students from the arts department. It was not immediately clear how many students heeded the call for the protest. But an arts student who attended classes on Wednesday told AFP there were 'practically no students' in the faculty. New pricing structure Etecsa gave no forewarning of its new pricing structure, which it said was necessary to fund investment in infrastructure. Rafael Gomez, an 18-year-old student at the University of Havana, said the new tariffs left mobile users with the bare minimum in terms of data. 'We were used to a certain system,' where customers can top up their credit as often as they like, he told AFP. Now, they are limited to 6GB of data, which Gomez noted 'is nothing and if you want to buy more, it costs over 3,000 pesos ($25), which you cannot afford on a regular Cuban salary,' Gomez said. The average monthly salary on the communist island is 5,700 pesos, or $47. Faced with the outcry from students, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Sunday that the government was looking at 'options' for 'the most vulnerable sectors, including our dear students.' After talks with student bodies Etecsa on Monday announced that students would be allowed two monthly top-ups at 360 pesos ($3), compared with one for the rest of the population. Further top-ups have to be paid in dollars or at the eye-watering price of over 3,000 pesos. The concessions failed to assuage the anger of many students. Brian Gamez, a history student, told AFP he favored 'peaceful protests' but was afraid that a mobilization could lead to vandalism. The Cuban government has been wary of stoking popular discontent since July 2021 when thousands of people took to the streets in a rare show of defiance to demonstrate over shortages of fuel, food, medicine and electricity. One person was killed and dozens injured in the protests, which Havana accused Washington of orchestrating.
Arab News
3 days ago
- Arab News
Ten Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on school in Gaza's Khan Younis
CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike on a school housing displaced Palestinian families killed at least 10 people, including children, on Wednesday, local health authorities said. Residents said Israeli military escalated airstrikes and tank shelling on parts of Khan Younis, a day after it dropped leaflets warning residents to leave their homes and head west, saying forces would fight Hamas and other militants in those areas.
