Myanmar military admits hospital air strike in Rakhine, denies civilians were killed

Myanmar’s military has acknowledged carrying out an air strike on a hospital in the western state of Rakhine that killed 33 people, insisting the victims were armed fighters and their supporters, not civilians, a claim flatly rejected by witnesses, aid workers, rebel groups and the United Nations.

In a statement published on Saturday by the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the military’s information office said opposition forces, including the Arakan Army and the People’s Defence Force, had been using the hospital in Mrauk-U township as a base.

According to the statement, the army carried out “necessary security measures” and launched a “counterterrorism operation” against the general hospital on Wednesday.

But the account sharply contradicts reports from the ground. Witnesses, humanitarian workers and local groups say the victims were civilians seeking medical care. UN agencies have echoed those claims, saying the facility was providing emergency, obstetric and surgical services at the time of the attack.

The United Nations condemned the strike on Thursday, describing it as part of a broader pattern of military attacks causing widespread harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure across Myanmar.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk 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 those responsible to be held to account. The fighting must stop now,” Turk wrote on X.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “appalled” by the strike.

“At least 33 people have been killed … including health workers, patients and family members,” he wrote on X. “Hospital infrastructure was severely damaged, with operating rooms and the main inpatient ward completely destroyed.”

The strike comes amid intensifying fighting in Myanmar’s civil war. Mrauk-U, about 530km northwest of Yangon, fell to the Arakan Army in February 2024. The group, the military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, has made rapid gains since launching a major offensive in November 2023, capturing a regional army headquarters and 14 of the state’s 17 townships.

Rakhine has long been a flashpoint. In 2017, it was the site of a brutal military campaign that forced about 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. Tensions between the Buddhist Rakhine population and the Rohingya remain high.

The Arakan Army said on Thursday it would pursue accountability for the hospital strike in cooperation with international organisations, pledging “strong and decisive action” against the military.

The attack also comes as Myanmar’s military government ramps up air strikes ahead of elections scheduled for December 28. Opponents of military rule say the polls will be neither free nor fair and are designed to legitimise continued army control.