Myanmar’s military has acknowledged carrying out an air strike on a hospital in the western state of Rakhine, saying it killed 33 people whom it accused of being armed members of opposition groups and their supporters, not civilians.
However, witnesses, aid workers, rebel groups and the United Nations have said the victims were civilians who were at the hospital.
In a statement published on Saturday by the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the military’s information office claimed that armed groups, including the ethnic Arakan Army and the People’s Defence Force, were using the hospital as a base.
The statement said the military carried out what it described as necessary security measures and launched a counterterrorism operation against the general hospital in Mrauk-U township on Wednesday.
However, the United Nations on Thursday condemned the attack on the facility, which provides emergency, obstetric and surgical services, saying it was part of a broader pattern of strikes harming civilians and civilian infrastructure and devastating communities across the country.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk denounced the attack “in the strongest possible terms” and called for an investigation. “Such attacks may amount to a war crime. I call for investigations and for those responsible to be held to account.
The fighting must stop now,” he wrote on X.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “appalled”. “At least 33 people have been killed, including health workers, patients and family members. Hospital infrastructure was severely damaged, with operating rooms and the main inpatient ward completely destroyed,” he wrote on X.
In a statement on Thursday, the Arakan Army vowed to seek accountability for the air strike in cooperation with international organisations to ensure justice and to take “strong and decisive action” against the military.
The military government has intensified air strikes ahead of elections scheduled for December 28. Critics of military rule say the vote will be neither free nor fair and is largely an attempt to legitimise the army’s continued hold on power.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power in 2021, sparking widespread popular resistance. Many opponents of military rule have since taken up arms, and large parts of the country are now engulfed in conflict.
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