Oct 5 (Reuters) – Myanmar military airstrikes on camps for internally displaced people in Rakhine State have killed eight people over two days, a rebel group and a youth association said on Monday, a week after an aerial attack in the same state killed 50.
• On Sunday, an airstrike hit a camp for internally displaced people in Rakhine’s Ponnagyun township at around 5 p.m. (1030 GMT), killing six people and injuring 11 others, according to spokespersons for the Arakan Army and the Ponnagyun Youth Association
• On Monday morning, both groups said another airstrike hit a second camp in the same township, killing two people and injuring two others
• “Everyone there is a displaced civilian,” said Kyaw Win Tun, a spokesperson for the Ponnagyun Youth Association, referring to inhabitants of both the camps that were hit
• A Myanmar government spokesperson did not immediately comment on the airstrikes. The government has previously said the military “exercises maximum restraint to avoid civilian harm”
• Reuters could not independently verify the details of the incidents
• Rakhine, which borders Bangladesh, has become a key battleground in war-torn Myanmar, with the Arakan Army controlling much of the coastal state and the military pushing to win back territory
• Myanmar’s civil war, which began after the military seized power in 2021, has killed around 100,000 people and displaced more than 3.5 million
• A week earlier, military airstrikes near a market in Rakhine’s Kyauktaw killed 50 people and wounded at least 58, drawing international condemnation
(Reporting by Reuters staff, Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Xevi Fontdegloria)
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