At least eleven children have died and fifteen minors are missing after a bombardment and ground assault by the Burmese Army in civilian areas of the northwestern region of Sagaing (Burma), including a school, according to a UNICEF statement.
The attack, which included an aerial bombardment from helicopters of the Tatmadaw -Burmese Army- and "indiscriminate" shots once the troops landed, occurred on Friday, September 16, according to the UN agency, which in the statement affirms that it still event details are being verified.
At least fifteen children from the same bombed school, located inside a Buddhist monastery, are missing, apparently kidnapped, and UNICEF urges their "immediate and safe release". "Schools are a safe space. Children should never be attacked," exhorts UNICEF.
Some Burmese independent media have echoed the attack by the Burmese Army, one of the bloodiest against minors on record since the Tatmadaw staged a coup on February 1, 2021, plunging the Asian country into a spiral of violence and destruction that continues.
According to Myanmar Now, in a news item dated Monday, the army launched an air and ground attack on several towns in Depaying Municipality, Sagaing, during school hours on Friday.
Most of the victims, this medium points out, are students from a school in Let Yet Kone, where the military would also have kidnapped teachers and students, and cites a resident of the area who assures that two helicopters appeared without warning and began to fire on villages indiscriminately.
"They came suddenly and started shooting. The two helicopters flew over our heads and fired. When they left, the only thing we could do was lie on the ground," adds the witness, whose identity the Burmese medium does not reveal.
For its part, the Burmese junta defends that the bombing was in response to an attack by insurgent groups, with "extremists" hiding in the monastery, which the Popular Defense Forces (PDF) deny, a movement that emerged in opposition to the coup, according to the Burmese outlet The Irrawaddy.
This medium indicates that resistance troops were guarding the school when two Mi-35M helicopters, manufactured by a Russian subsidiary, carried out the attack, and that later some 80 soldiers were deployed in the area and surrounded the school.
A statement from the National Unity Government (NUG), made up largely of members of the deposed executive of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, now in prison, and which claims to be the legitimate authority in Burma, condemns the "inhumane attack", which he defines as a "brutal war crime".
According to the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (AAPP), a local NGO that collects information on the junta's attacks, at least 57 children under the age of 13 have been killed by the military since the coup, out of a total of almost 2,300. civilians killed at the hands of the Burmese security forces.
