Myanmar junta airstrike kills 40 people and burns down 500 houses in Rakhine – reports
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Strike on Arakan Army stronghold sparks massive fire. At least 40 civilians, including children, have been killed in an airstrike by Myanmar’s army on a village controlled by an armed ethnic group, officials and a charity said. The attack reportedly occurred in the Kyauk Ni Maw village on Ramree Island, a township currently held by the Arakan Army in western Rakhine state, on Wednesday.
![[A huge fire erupted following the airstrike]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/10/06/2192459295.jpg)
The bombing caused a huge fire in the densely populated village that reportedly burned down at least 500 houses. The military has not announced any attack in the area. Myanmar has been engulfed in a civil war since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party in a coup in February 2021.
The army has used lethal force to crack down on ethnic groups as well as peaceful demonstrations opposing junta rule, sparking conflict and armed violence in many parts of the country. The Arakan Army is the military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.
It is a member of an alliance of armed groups that recently gained territory in the country’s northeast on the border with China. The group captured Ramree, which is 340km northwest of Yangon, the largest city, in March last year. The airstrike on Kyauk Ni Maw also injured more than 20 people, Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the Arakan Army, told the Associated Press.
