In one of the deadliest assaults against civilians this year, a Myanmar military airstrike on a village school in central Sagaing has killed at least 20 children and two teachers, leaving the international community shocked and outraged.

The European Union on Wednesday expressed horror at the attack, calling it a “massacre” and demanding accountability. “We are horrified over reports of a massacre in a village school in Sagaing,” said EU foreign affairs spokeswoman Anitta Hipper. “Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims, most of them children.”

The airstrike, which occurred on Monday in the village of Oe Htein Kwin, obliterated a school building housing nearly 300 students. Eyewitnesses reported a military jet circling the village before unleashing a missile that tore through the aquamarine schoolhouse.

Local father Ko Min, devastated and grieving, described the scene with raw anguish:

“One had no face and one’s body was cut. They were cuddling their books,” he said of his children, both killed in the strike. “My heart is broken. I value my children more than my own life.”

The attack comes during what was supposed to be a humanitarian ceasefire — brokered to allow aid delivery after a catastrophic 7.7-magnitude earthquake in March. Instead, villagers say the Myanmar junta used the pause in fighting to launch another brutal campaign from the skies.

The junta has dismissed the reports as ‘fabricated news’, despite extensive evidence: shattered infrastructure, blood-stained walls, destroyed notebooks, and eyewitness testimony from survivors and grieving families.

The National Unity Government (NUG) in exile has condemned the attack, revealing the youngest victim was just seven years old.

Photos and video footage from the scene show the unmistakable aftermath of an aerial strike: pockmarked walls, a blown-away roof, and school supplies soaked in blood. On Monday, villagers buried the dead themselves, draping the children in their finest clothes and laying them to rest with bare hands.“The children are innocent. They cannot even hold their pen or pencils firmly,” said Ko Min. “Why do they attack these children?”

This strike marks a new low in Myanmar’s civil war, which erupted after the military seized power from an elected civilian government in 2021. As it suffers mounting losses to resistance groups and ethnic fighters, the junta has ramped up indiscriminate air assaults — many using Russian-supplied aircraft — often targeting civilian areas.

Human rights groups are calling the bombing a clear violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime.

“The use of airstrikes against schools is an egregious crime under international law,” said a representative from Human Rights Watch. “These are not battlefield engagements — these are deliberate assaults on children and educators.”

The international community is now under renewed pressure to hold Myanmar’s military accountable and to end the impunity for what many are calling systemic and extreme human rights violations.As the graves of children lie fresh in the ground of Oe Htein Kwin, the global outcry grows — but for many Myanmar families, justice remains as distant as peace.

Bob post