At least 34 people have been killed and dozens more injured after air strikes hit a hospital in western Myanmar on Wednesday night, local sources said, in one of the deadliest single attacks since the country’s coup sparked a prolonged civil war.
The hospital in Mrauk-U town, in Rakhine state, was struck around 9 p.m. local time, according to the Arakan Army, an armed ethnic group that controls the area. The attack, which occurred in a region long contested by Myanmar’s military regime, drew immediate condemnation from ground sources who said many of the victims were patients receiving care.
Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the Arakan Army, told the BBC that the majority of those killed were patients at the hospital. “This is the latest vicious attack by the terrorist military targeting civilian places,” he said, adding that the junta “must take responsibility” for the civilian casualties.
The Arakan Army’s health department said ten patients died instantly at the scene and that many others were seriously injured.
Photos circulating on social media and shared by local residents showed parts of the hospital with roofs missing, shattered beds, and debris scattered across corridors and outdoor areas.
The Myanmar military, which has carried out a campaign of intensified air strikes against ethnic armed groups in recent months, has not publicly commented on the hospital attack.
Pro-military accounts on Telegram acknowledged strikes this week but insisted they were not aimed at civilians. Independent verification of those claims was not available.
The strikes come as Myanmar prepares for a general election on December 28, the first since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
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Since 2021, thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced as the military, known as the Tatmadaw, battles ethnic armies and pro-democracy forces across the country.
In recent months, analysts say the regime has expanded its use of air power, including dropping bombs from paragliders and using heavier aerial bombardment to regain territory from ethnic militias such as the Arakan Army.
Earlier this year, civilian casualties rose sharply after an army paraglider dropped two bombs on a crowd during a religious festival, killing more than 20 people, according to reports from local officials and international media.
Rights groups report that civil liberties have sharply contracted under military rule, with tens of thousands of political dissidents arrested or forced into hiding.
The junta has presented the December election as a step toward stability, but critics — including Tom Andrews, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar — have dismissed it as a “sham election.”
Opposition to the vote has grown, with ethnic armies and other anti-junta groups pledging to boycott the process. In recent weeks authorities have arrested civilians accused of undermining the election, including a man detained for allegedly spreading anti-election messages on Facebook.