NAYPYIDAW: At least 30 people, including patients, were killed after an airstrike by Myanmar’s ruling junta hit a hospital in the country’s western Rakhine state, according to a rebel group, an aid worker and a witness. More than 70 people were injured, they said.
The hospital in Rakhine’s Mrauk U township was struck late on Wednesday by bombs dropped from a military aircraft, said Khine Thu Kha, a spokesman for the Arakan Army, which is battling the junta across parts of the coastal state.
“The Mrauk U General Hospital was completely destroyed,” Khine Thu Kha told Reuters. “The high number of casualties occurred because the hospital took a direct hit.”
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls for comment.
Myanmar has been gripped by conflict since the military suppressed protests against a 2021 coup that unseated the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The 300-bed hospital was overflowing with patients at the time of the strike, said aid worker Wai Hun Aung, as most healthcare services across swathes of Rakhine state have been suspended amid ongoing fighting.
The UN human rights chief Volker Turk said such attacks may amount to a war crime and called for an investigation.
“I am appalled and condemn in the strongest possible terms the strikes on Rakhine hospital,” he said in a post on X, adding that he is concerned about new waves of acute violence and fear in the country.
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