ALBAWABA- A Myanmar military airstrike on a major hospital in western Rakhine state killed at least 31 people and injured more than 70 on December 10, in one of the deadliest assaults on civilian infrastructure since the country’s civil war began.
The 300-bed Mrauk U General Hospital, under the control of the Arakan Army (AA) since late 2024, was leveled when a junta aircraft dropped two 500-pound bombs around 9 p.m., igniting fires that swept through wards packed with patients.
Witnesses and aid workers described scenes of devastation, collapsed roofs, mangled columns, and bodies lying across the grounds, as surviving patients were rushed to makeshift clinics amid ongoing clashes.
Among the victims were at least ten hospitalized civilians, including a Rohingya family of four from Pauktaw township: a father, his son, daughter-in-law, and their three-month-old baby.
AA spokesperson Khine Thu Kha condemned the bombing as a “war crime” carried out on International Human Rights Day, insisting no AA fighters were present at the hospital. The junta, which controls Myanmar’s air force, has not responded to repeated media inquiries.
The attack comes as junta forces intensify operations ahead of a widely criticized nationwide election set to begin on December 28.
The military claims the vote will restore stability, while rebel groups, including the AA, have vowed to block polling in territories they control. Since overthrowing Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021, the junta has faced fierce resistance from ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy forces, displacing more than three million people and killing thousands.
