A massacre in the jungle. Sources confirm that a military airstrike by Myanmar's junta has levelled a rebel-held village in Sagaing Region, killing at least 35 civilians including children. The attack targeted a village used by the People's Defence Force, but witnesses say most victims were families hiding in makeshift shelters.
Eyewitness accounts obtained by this desk describe a scene of horror: bodies strewn across smoking rubble, a school reduced to splinters, and survivors clawing through debris for the missing. One man, who gave his name only as Ko Zaw, told me via encrypted message: 'They bombed us at dawn. No warning. My sister and her two babies are gone.'
The British Foreign Office has condemned the attack, calling it 'a brutal escalation' and demanding the junta face accountability. But accountability has been scarce since the 2021 coup. The junta's spokesperson, Zaw Min Tun, dismissed the reports as 'fake news' and claimed the strike hit a legitimate military target.
Documents leaked from inside the junta's air force, which I have reviewed, suggest this was not a mistake. A planning order dated 72 hours before the strike lists the village as a 'rebel logistics hub' and authorises 'maximum force' to clear it. The same documents show the junta has imported 20 tons of aviation fuel from Russia in the past month, paid for with stolen gems.
This village bombing fits a pattern. Since October, the junta has intensified air strikes on civilian areas, using Chinese-made fighter jets and Russian-supplied bombs. The UN estimates over 1,200 civilians have been killed in such attacks this year alone. The junta's strategy is clear: starve the resistance by killing the villages that shelter them.
Britain's statement is a start, but words do not stop bombs. What will London do? Sanctions have already failed to choke the junta's arms supply. The real question is whether Western powers will finally take concrete steps: seizing assets, banning oil purchases from junta-linked companies, or arming the resistance.
For now, the dead lie under tarpaulins in a village that no longer exists. Their names will be forgotten, buried beneath the junta's silence. But these bodies are evidence. Every corpse in that rubble is a witness to the junta's war crimes. And one day, we will hold the recording.
