Myanmar military aircraft struck two camps for internally displaced people in Rakhine State’s Ponnagyun Township on Sunday and Monday, killing eight civilians and wounding at least 13 others, according to the Arakan Army and the Ponnagyun Youth Association. The raids came seven days after junta bombs near a Kyauktaw market killed 50 people and drew fresh international condemnation of air operations in western Myanmar.
What the groups reported
On Sunday around 5 p.m. local time, two jet fighters dropped bombs on the Byar La camp between Yoe Ngu and Thayet Cho villages, the Arakan Army said in a statement. Spokespeople for the rebel group and the youth association told Reuters that six people died in that attack and 11 were injured. Local writers assisting displaced families told Narinjara that some bodies were badly burned and that the death toll could rise as searchers work through debris.
On Monday morning, at least three aircraft—including jet fighters and a Y-12 transport—bombed the Pan Nilar displacement camp and nearby Aungphyupyin Village, according to Development Media Group and other local outlets. A woman in Aungphyupyin was killed on the spot, and several students and adults were hurt inside the camp, including an 18-year-old grade 12 student who later died from head wounds, local sources said. The Pan Nilar strikes also destroyed a volunteer clinic in the camp while it was closed, residents reported.
Civilians at the center of the fight
Rakhine, which borders Bangladesh, has become one of the fiercest battlegrounds in Myanmar’s civil war. The Arakan Army controls much of the coastal state; the military has tried to claw back territory with repeated air campaigns. Kyaw Win Tun, a spokesperson for the Ponnagyun Youth Association, told Reuters that everyone sheltering in the two camps was a displaced civilian. A Myanmar government spokesperson did not immediately comment Monday; the junta has previously said the military “exercises maximum restraint to avoid civilian harm.”
Pattern and pressure
Humanitarian groups have documented strikes on schools, markets, bridges, and religious sites as the army faces setbacks on the ground. The Kyauktaw market attack on Sept. 28 killed 50 people and wounded at least 58, according to aid workers cited by news agencies. Monday’s camp bombings extend that pattern into sites explicitly set up for people who fled earlier fighting.
The United Nations and ASEAN members have repeatedly called for an end to aerial attacks on populated areas, but enforcement has been limited while the conflict grinds on. For families in Ponnagyun, the immediate question is shelter: after Monday’s raids, witnesses said Y-12 aircraft continued to circle, forcing people to run again with little more than the belongings they could carry.