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Myanmar’s military acknowledged on Saturday that an airstrike had hit a hospital in the western state. RakhineA local rescuer and media reports said more than 30 people, including patients, medical workers and children, were killed.
In a statement published by state-run Global New Light myanmar The newspaper, the military’s information office, said armed groups including pro-democracy militias, the ethnic Arakan Army and the People’s Defense Force, formed after the military takeover in 2021, used the hospital as their base.
It said the army took necessary security measures and launched a counter-terrorism operation against hospital buildings on Wednesday. It said those killed or injured were armed members of opposition groups and their supporters, but not civilians.
A senior official of rescue services in Rakhine told The Associated Press on Thursday that 34 people, including patients and medical staff, were killed and about 80 others were wounded when an army jet fighter dropped two bombs on a general hospital in Mrauk-U township, an area controlled by the Arakan Arm, or AA. He said the hospital building was destroyed by bombs on Wednesday night.
united nations It said in a statement on Thursday that the attack was part of a wider pattern of attacks harming civilians and civilian objects that are devastating communities across the country.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesushead of World Health OrganizationIn his statement on X, he said he was “shocked” by the attack on a hospital providing primary health care, and said it would disrupt access to health care for entire communities.
Mrauk-U, located 530 kilometers (326 miles) northwest of Yangon, the country’s largest city, was captured by the Arakan Army in February 2024.
The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government. It began its offensive in Rakhine in November 2023 and has captured the strategically important regional army headquarters and 14 of Rakhine’s 17 townships.
The group vowed in its statement released Thursday that it would pursue accountability in cooperation with global organizations to ensure justice and take “strong and decisive action” against the military.
The group also said in separate statements that the military had launched a series of night-time airstrikes on five towns in Rakhine following the attack on the hospital, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 10 others.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military took power in 2021, sparking widespread public protests. Since then, many opponents of the military rule have taken up arms and large parts of the country are now embroiled in conflict.