Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

2-minute read
11 April 2023 | 19:57 CAT

Photo credit: Bangkok Post

Myanmar’s military has killed dozens of people in airstrikes on an event organised by its domestic opponents, in what is feared to be one of the deadliest attacks since the junta seized power in February 2021.

Local independent media reported that the attack on Tuesday morning targeted a ceremony marking the opening of an office set up by the military’s opponents in the village of Pa Zi Gyi in the Sagaing region.

The national unity government (NUG), set up to oppose the junta, said at least 53 people were confirmed dead, including 15 women and several children; 40 were injured, and the death toll was expected to rise.

In an interview, Researcher and academic activist Rezaur Rahman Lenin told Radio Islam International his understanding that the ongoing civil war occurring in different parts of Myanmar is due to an illegal, unelected government.

According to Rahman, the significance behind the air strike attacks in Myanmar is to inflict more casualties among non-competence. Ground troops find it challenging to move around as mines and explosive devices often hit them.

Sagaing region – near the second-largest city Mandalay – has put up some fiercest resistance to the military’s rule, with intense fighting raging there for months.

Myanmar’s pro-democracy government-in-exile, the National Unity Government, condemned the attack, calling it “yet another example of [the military’s] indiscriminate use of extreme force against civilians”.

Listen to the full interview on Your World Today with host Annisa Essack.