Bangkok, Oct 10 (EFE).- Dozens of people, including children, were killed in an artillery attack by the Myanmar military in a camp of internally displaced people in the northern Kachin state on Monday night.
According to Kachin News Group, more than 30 displaced people from Monlaingkhat camp, in the northern state bordering China, were killed or injured after the attack by the Myanmar army around midnight.
In a Facebook post, the media outlet reported that the camp for the displaced people was destroyed by the attack.
More than 20 civilians, including children, were killed in the camp near Laiza, next to the Chinese border, the Kachin National Organization said.
“We express our utmost condemnation of the Burmese military’s recent terror attack on the Kachin IDP camp in Laiza on Monday,” the group said in a press statement posted on its Facebook page.
“This heinous act resulted in the tragic loss of more than 20 lives, including women and children, and damaged and destroyed civilian objects and created large debris. We are still recovering the number of losses and casualties at the time of this press release,” it added.
The National Unity Government (NUG), which claims itself as the legitimate authority of Myanmar, described the attack as a “war crime,” putting the death toll at least 28.
“Act of military junta is war crime and crime against humanity,” said an NUG President’s Office spokesperson in a message on social network X (formerly Twitter), in which he described the attack as “horrendous” and ” ruthless.”
The Kachin ethnic group has been engaged in a guerrilla war with the Myanmar army for decades.
The conflict escalated after a fresh military takeover of the country on February 1, 2021, which ended a decade of democratic transition and plunged the country into semi-anarchy.
In October last year, the state was subjected to one of the worst attacks when the Myanmar army bombed a music festival celebrating the 62nd founding anniversary of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), killing at least 50 people.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned in late September that the Myanmar army’s brutal attacks on civilians were increasing by the day.
The attacks, in which Myanmar army are allegedly using war tactics against unguarded civilians supposedly to stay in power, have left thousands dead.
According to the UN agency, at least 4,108 civilians were killed between Apr. 1, 2020, and July 31, 2020, in attacks, in which three military tactics – aerial bombing, massacres, and arson attacks -, were used.
Last week, the NUG reported that at least 21 children were injured, seven of them critically, after the Myanmar army opened fire at a school in a village in a rebel stronghold in the northern region of Sagaing, bordering Kachin. EFE
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