At least 33 killed by airstrikes on hospital in Rakhine State
The Arakan Army (AA) reported that at least 33 civilians were killed and 76 others were injured by airstrikes on a hospital in Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, carried out by the Burma Air Force on Wednesday. Mrauk-U, located 88 miles (142 km) northeast of the Arakan State capital Sittwe, was seized by the AA in February 2024.
“The situation is very terrible,” local aid worker Wai Hun Aung, after arriving at the scene on Thursday morning, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “As for now, we can confirm there are 31 deaths and we think there will be more deaths. Also there are 68 wounded and there will be more and more.” Twenty-seven of the injured survivors are in critical condition, local media reported.
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) accused the regime of committing a war crime. At least 1,670 civilians, including 127 residents of Arakan, were killed in 1,834 aerial attacks carried out by the regime’s Air Force since March 28, according to DVB data. Mrauk-U residents told DVB that at least 12 civilians were killed and 21 others were injured by two airstrikes on Daikyi Ward on Aug. 25. Read more
Parliamentarians from Canada reject Myanmar elections
The Parliamentary Friends of a Democratic Burma, an Ottawa-based group of Canadian parliamentarians, announced on Monday that it has rejected the regime’s 2025-26 “sham” elections in Burma, which were scheduled by the Union Election Commission (UEC) to begin on Dec. 28 and continue into January 2026.
“The military junta’s planned sham election is neither free nor fair, and must not be recognized by Canada or any [other] democratic nation,” Kelly DeRidder, a Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Kitchener Centre in the province of Ontario, said in a statement.
The Canadian parliamentarians added that any country accepting the results of the regime elections would betray millions of people in Burma and legitimize the military, which seized power in the 2021 coup by ousting the democratically-elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government led by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. Both leaders have been held by the regime ever since. Read more
Myanmar award-winning filmmakers unable to attend DVB festival
At the DVB Peacock Film Festival 2025 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, most of the award-winning filmmakers from Burma were absent — not out of choice, but for their own survival. Chan Thiri Soe, the festival organizer, told DVB English News that the filmmakers could not safely travel from Myanmar to Thailand to accept their awards at Wednesday’s ceremony.
“International audiences who came to this festival can really understand the real context of our country, and they will become voices for our people,” said Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe, an NLD member of parliament ousted in the 2021 coup, who attended the DVB Peacock Film Festival Dec. 8-10.
A man with his face covered by a mask for security reasons, accepted the festival’s highest prize, the International Jury Best Choice Award on behalf of Kha Baung, whose film Fragment of Witness documents the aftermath of the March 28 earthquake. More than 1,000 people joined the three-day film festival at Chiang Mai University (CMU) with around 360 people filling the hall for the festival’s closing awards ceremony. Read more
News by Region
ARAKAN—The Humanitarian and Development Coordination Office under the United League of Arakan (ULA), the political wing of the AA, released a statement on Thursday documenting human rights violations faced by residents in the 14 townships seized by the AA since Nov. 13, 2023.
“[We] urge the [U.N.], international NGOs, and global media outlets covering Arakan to report the situation on the ground in a fair, balanced and impartial manner,” the HCDO stated. The AA has been accused by human rights organizations of committing severe abuses against the Rohingya.
MAGWAY—Sources on the frontline told DVB that the AA has led an attack against the regime’s Artillery Battalion Headquarters 905 in Padan town and the Natyaykan Air Defence Base in Ngape Township since Nov. 30. Ngape is located 48 miles (77 km) west of the region’s capital Magway.
An Ngape resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity that regime forces have been “trapped” inside the Natyaykan Air Defence Base since AA-led resistance forces surrounded it in October. The AA launched its offensive in neighbouring Magway, Bago and Ayeyarwady regions in December 2024.
MANDALAY—The regime’s Ministry of Information announced on Tuesday that 10 pro-democracy activists, including Tayzar San, Nan Lin, and Khant Wai Phyo, have been charged under the Election Protection Law. This follows an anti-regime protest at Zay Cho Market in Chanmyathazi Township on Dec. 3.
Residents told DVB that nearly 70 shops were destroyed by regime forces on Dec. 4 to punish those accused of supporting the protest. DVB has documented that 293 have been charged, 47 have been arrested, and eight have been convicted under this law since it was enacted on July 29.
SAGAING—Residents of Kyikone village told DVB that at least 20 regime troops were killed by the People’s Defense Force (PDF), who also lost two members during fighting against regime forces in Chaung-U Township, on Monday. Chaung-U is 16 miles (25 km) south of the region’s capital Monywa.
A resident of Kyikone village told DVB on the condition of anonymity that regime forces looted and set fire to homes over the last two weeks. No civilian casualties were reported. At least 40 people were killed by a paramotor attack in Chaung-U on the full moon day of Thadingyut on Oct. 6.
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