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Myanmar junta bombed a medical clinic in Magway region Saturday morning, killing 11, including medical staff and children, despite no recent battles between junta forces and anti-junta militias in the area, residents told Radio Free Asia.
Magway region, located in central Myanmar, rife with fighting between junta forces that seized power in a 2021 military coup and insurgent militias fighting for democracy, often faces some of the armed forces’ most violent attacks.
“We found 11 bodies. There were five children,” said a resident in the region’s Gangaw township, who declined to be named for security reasons. “Everyone was a civilian.”
The National Unity Government, Myanmar’s government in exile, also confirmed on Sunday that the attack killed 40-year-old Mya Soe Aung, a doctor, his wife, 39-year-old Khaing Hnin Wai, a nurse who was four months pregnant, their five-year-old son and eight other patients waiting on medical care.
Mya Soe Aung and Khaing Hnin Wei used to work at Sagaing region’s Tin Thar District Hospital and participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement, which began in February 2021 as a peaceful resistance against the military coup.
Led by healthcare workers and activists, it involved mass strikes and protests despite brutal crackdowns, symbolizing the fight for democracy.
Both continued to treat patients in Sagaing and Magway regions after leaving their positions.
Prisoners found dead
Separately, residents told RFA that bodies of four civilians arrested by junta troops were recovered in north Kya Pin village, roughly 186 kilometers (115 miles) south in Magway region’s Salin township, on Saturday.
The four were arrested during mass raids by junta on Kya Pin and 24 other villages, said a member of a regional administrative group, who asked to remain nameless for fear of reprisals.
He identified the victims as two men aged 40 and 50 years old, and two others around 60 years old.
“The bodies were dumped in an old toilet pit inside of Kya Pin’s school,” he said. “Because we can’t get a hold of them, we can’t move them to the cemetery and have to fill the area with sand.”
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In nearby Koke Ko Tan and Nay Pu Khan villages, junta forces torched more than 100 homes, burning a 55-year-old woman to death, he said.
Due to the junta raid, roughly 17,000 villagers have been unable to return to their homes, he added.
Magway region’s junta spokesperson Myo Myint has not responded to RFA’s inquiries.
According to a March 21 report by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, junta attacks have claimed the lives of 6,435 civilians across the country since the coup.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Taejun Kang.