At least 22 people, most of them teenage students, were killed in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State after the military carried out an airstrike on two private schools, according to local reports and the Arakan Army (AA). 

Witnesses and local media confirmed that a jet fighter dropped two bombs on Pyinnyar Pan Khinn and A Myin Thit Private High School in Thayet Thapin village of Kyauktaw township. Most of the victims were aged between 17 and 18, boarding at the schools. 

Khaing Thukha, spokesperson for the AA, said that internet and mobile networks in the area have been cut off, making independent verification difficult. He added that the AA felt deep sorrow alongside the victims’ families and held the junta responsible for the massacre. 

Images of the aftermath of the attack 

Wai Hun Aung, a relief coordinator in Rakhine, said the victims were among 30 to 40 students residing at the schools. The strike also destroyed at least six houses, leaving 21 others injured, including six in critical condition. Local outlets reported that military warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs as the students slept, posting photos and videos of the devastation. 

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) condemned the attack in a statement, calling it a “brutal” act and part of a pattern of escalating violence in Rakhine. “Children and families are paying the ultimate price,” the agency said, urging the protection of civilians.

This latest atrocity recalls the military’s earlier campaigns in Rakhine, including the 2017 crackdown that forced more than 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. The AA, which represents the Rakhine ethnic minority, has been fighting for greater autonomy. 

Since late 2023, it has seized control of 14 out of 17 townships in the state, including Kyauktaw. Myanmar has been engulfed in conflict since the February 2021 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. Security forces have since killed more than 7,200 people, according to independent estimates. The junta has increasingly relied on airstrikes against ethnic armed groups and the pro-democracy People’s Defence Force, which lack proper defenses against aerial bombardment.

Human rights groups and observers condemned the school bombing as another war crime by Myanmar’s military, which has repeatedly targeted civilians in its campaign to maintain power. The deliberate attack on sleeping students has sparked outrage across the region and renewed calls for accountability against the junta’s leadership.

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