More than five years after the coup in Myanmar - the West is burning again

The Myanmar army launched an offensive in Rakhine State in an attempt to reclaim territories lost to the Arakan Army. In one wave of bombings, at least 12 people were killed, including a newborn baby in a temporary clinic. A local resident described how two fighter jets bombed a displacement camp.

More than five years after the coup in Myanmar, the army launched an offensive in Rakhine State in the west of the country, attempting to reclaim territories it lost to the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group that controls about 90% of Rakhine. In one wave of bombings, at least 12 people were killed and 32 wounded, including a newborn baby in a temporary clinic that served as a maternity ward. A local resident said that two fighter jets bombed a displacement camp near the village of Thayet Chaw one after another, dropping a bomb followed by an incendiary bomb. The UN investigation mechanism has documented cases where the army struck the same location again shortly after the first bombing, as people rushed to rescue the wounded. The junta launched the offensive in early September, and in recent weeks the organization's forces have approached the state capital Sittwe. According to UN estimates, about 100,000 people have been killed in the war and more than 3.5 million displaced since the February 2021 coup.