At least 29 people, including children, have died in a bomb attack on a camp for people who had to leave their homes in north-east Myanmar, close to the border with China.
The camp is located in an area controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which is one of several groups fighting for self-rule in the region for a long time.
According to a KIO spokesperson, all the people who were hurt were ordinary citizens and not military personnel.
This attack is one of the deadliest in the long conflict that has lasted for 63 years in Kachin State.
Kachin officials say that the military has increased their attacks on areas controlled by the KIO in the past year because more Kachin people are supporting other rebel groups who are fighting against the government.
A lot of Myanmar has been caught up in a bigger fight between different groups since the military took control in 2021 and removed the elected government. The military is using air attacks more often against towns and villages controlled by the opposition after taking control.
The National Unity Government (NUG), which is currently living in a different country because they were forced to leave their own, has accused the military junta for the assault on the camp. They consider it to be a terrible act of war and a crime against people.
The spokesperson for the military, Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun, said that the military did not carry out the attack.
He said the army didn’t do anything in that place and thought that the damage was likely caused by explosives that were being stored there.
Pictures shown by local news showed dead bodies being taken out from the collapsed building and many body bags laid next to each other.
The attack occurred on Monday night in a camp called Mong Lai Khet. The camp is located on the outskirts of Laiza, a town near the border of China. The camp houses people who have been forced to leave their homes. This town is where the KIO (Kachin Independence Organization) has its main office.
Some of the camp was destroyed by big explosions around midnight, according to KIO officials who spoke to the BBC.
Video of what happened after the event shows that a lot of houses were completely destroyed and many people got hurt or killed.
Kachin officials think that at least 11 kids are among the ones who died. In the recent attack, 56 additional people got hurt, and out of those, 44 ended up in the hospital for medical care.
The United Nations in Myanmar expressed serious worries about news on people dying in the camp.
“IDP camps are safe places for people seeking shelter, and it is unacceptable to harm civilians, regardless of their location,” stated on Facebook.
The British embassy in the main city Yangon expressed shock and anger over the news of a Myanmar military attack that resulted in the death of innocent people.
For a long time, there has been fighting near the camp because it is close to where Kachin troops and government forces are in battle.
But people who live nearby the camp say that there hasn’t been any fighting happening close by recently.
The attack might have happened from the sky, but Col Naw Bu of the Kachin Independence Army said the group didn’t hear any planes.
Nearly a year ago, the Myanmar air force dropped targeted bombs on an outdoor concert at a Kachin base, causing the death of over 80 individuals.
The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) is a big and strong rebel group in Myanmar. It is the army part of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). The group has been fighting the main government sometimes since 1960 and regularly since a ceasefire ended in 2011.
Since the takeover, the army thinks the KIA is a big danger because they are providing weapons and training to new groups that formed to fight against the military.
KIA has been in a partnership with the Arakan Army for a long time. The Arakan Army is a rebel group that was first established in Kachin State. But starting from 2016, it has been working in Rakhine State, which is far away from the rest of the country. It has been able to compete with the military and gain control over a large part of the land.
The latest report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that there is a continuous cycle of violent acts happening in the country, mainly perpetrated by the military.