Myanmar: UN investigators document deliberate military attacks on civilians

(UN News) Myanmar’s military has carried out a sustained campaign of deliberate attacks on civilians – including airstrikes on homes, schools and camps for displaced people, alongside arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence – according to Human Rights Council-appointed investigators.

Why the Myanmar crisis matters: Civilians under fire: airstrikes on homes, schools, hospitals, Abuses continue: torture, arbitrary detention and sexual violence documented; Evidence preserved: information from more than 1,600 sources gathered to support prosecutions; The findings come in the annual report of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), covering July 2025 to June 2026, published Tuesday.

“One of the areas that we’re concentrating on is, because of the suffering that’s happening in Myanmar, are the airstrikes [against communities] that are occurring…We’re looking at the command structure and how the orders would be given for such airstrikes,” said Nicholas Koumjian, head of the Mechanism.

“In particular there are many airstrikes targeting, hitting schools. Children are often the victims of these airstrikes and also hospitals. So our team is collecting that evidence of where it has occurred, the kind of munitions that are used.”

Myanmar has been engulfed in conflict since the military seized power in February 2021, overthrowing the civilian government and arresting top leaders including President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

The coup also triggered nationwide protests and subsequent armed resistance movements which control large swathes of the fractured country.

Myanmar: UN investigators document deliberate military attacks on civilians | UN News

The Global Eye is in partnership with SIOI – Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale

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