Over the past month, the Burma army has launched nearly 500 airstrikes nationwide, killing more than 40 children and hitting 15 schools, according to the shadow National Unity Government. In two consecutive days of September alone, the junta carried out major strikes against civilians, the worst being the deliberate bombing of a boarding school that killed at least 22 people, most of them children. The attacks mark a sharp escalation in the regime’s air campaign, which is increasingly targeting schools and civilian areas.
The Burma military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government on February 1, 2021, plunging one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations into turmoil. Peaceful demonstrations were crushed with lethal force, leaving more than 7,200 people dead at the hands of security forces, according to nongovernment organizations. With no other option, many opponents took up arms, and the junta now faces an entrenched insurgency of established ethnic armies and new resistance outfits like the pro-democracy People’s Defence Force, which has no effective defence against airstrikes.
More than 3.5 million people are internally displaced, millions more have fled to Thailand and Bangladesh, and nearly 22 million, over a third of the population, urgently need humanitarian assistance. The regime clings to power through emergency rule, repression, and an increasing reliance on air power that devastates civilian communities.
According to a report from Free Burma Rangers (FBR) on September 11, 2025, at 10:20 p.m., Burma Army Light Infantry Battalion 102 fired mortars into Daw Byar Khu Village, striking a family of six that included a grandmother, mother, father, and three children. Three were killed: 91-year-old Daw Mi Mar, 38-year-old Daw Thu Mar, and 44-year-old U Ngar Yae. Three children were also wounded in the strike, a 15-year-old, a 12-year-old, and an 8-year-old. In a single moment, these children lost their parents and grandmother, instantly orphaned by this indiscriminate attack.
FBR asked everyone around the world: “Please pray for their physical and emotional healing, and for comfort as they face the devastating loss of their family. This is evil, and we remain committed to stand with the people of Burma.”
The following day, on September 12, 2025, the Burma army carried out its most egregious attack of the year, an airstrike on a boarding school complex in Thayat Tabin village, Kyauktaw Township, Rakhine State. A military jet dropped two 500-pound bombs on a high school as students slept, killing at least 22 people, mostly children, and injuring more than 20 others. It was one of the deadliest assaults on schools since the military takeover in February 2021 and compounded the suffering of civilians in Rakhine, where communities of all ethnicities face constant attacks, displacement, and starvation.
This strike follows a grim pattern of school bombings across the country that have left children dead or wounded. Such indiscriminate strikes on civilians may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity, and attacks on children are particularly heinous.
UNICEF condemned the attacks, stating that children and families are paying the ultimate price and emphasizing that schools, homes, and essential services must remain safe. But the military junta is ignoring UNICEF and the UN, and anyone caught in this conflict can see the arrogance of well-paid delegates sitting in an office in Geneva or New York, believing you are doing meaningful work by writing letters of condemnation. Neither UNICEF nor the UN are on the ground in Burma, and without guns, no one is changing anything.
The military has sharply escalated its aerial bombardments, devastating civilian areas and worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis. Between January and May 2025 alone, the junta carried out more than 1,134 airstrikes, a steep rise from previous years. These assaults are part of its push to crush pro-democracy forces and tighten control ahead of a general election set for December.
The junta has announced an election for December, but until then dictator Min Aung Hlaing continues to rule as acting president. The vote is already widely dismissed as a sham, with opposition and pro-democracy parties barred from participating.
The junta-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) has ruled out voting in 121 constituencies for the first phase of the December 28 election. These cover 56 townships where the regime’s authority has collapsed and territory is held by ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) and resistance forces. Out of 330 total townships, only 102, mostly in regime-controlled areas like Yangon and Naypyitaw, are confirmed for voting, while 172 remain undecided, many in active conflict zones.
The excluded areas span Kachin, Karenni, Chin, Sagaing, Magwe, Mandalay, Rakhine, and Shan States. In Rakhine, where the Arakan Army controls most of the territory, elections are still planned in some towns outside junta control, raising speculation that the military may intensify operations to seize them before subsequent phases. A similar pattern is seen in northern Shan State, where towns under TNLA control are not on the no-vote list. These same areas are also being pounded by airstrikes, where civilians, including children, are killed daily.
Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAO) and resistance groups have rejected the junta’s election as nothing more than a ploy to entrench military rule. Much of the international community has dismissed it for the same reason. Yet while the world already knows the vote will be a sham, the world does nothing to intervene or help the people of Burma.
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