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At least 14 civilians killed by airstrikes in Sagaing Region since ceasefire

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Two civilians were killed by airstrikes on Kanni Township, Sagaing Region, on April 14. (Credit: DVB)

Residents of Kanni, Tanze, Tabayin, Mingin, and Kawlin townships in Sagaing Region told DVB that at least 14 civilians were killed and nearly 50 were injured by airstrikes on 12 villages in Sagaing – despite a ceasefire between the regime and People’s Defense Forces (PDF) – April 11-14. 

The five towns are located 40-153 miles (64-243 km) north of the region’s capital Monywa. All are either under partial or full control of the National Unity Government (NUG). It announced a halt to PDF offensives against the regime from March 30-April 13, which was extended until April 20. But the ceasefire allows the PDF to retaliate in “self-defense” against regime attacks.

A Kanni Township resident told DVB that two civilians were killed by airstrikes on seven villages on April 14. It is partly controlled by the NUG and the regime. “Two fighter jets dropped four bombs over the monastery,” a Tanze Township resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity after an airstrike killed one woman in Lema village on April 13. 

A member of All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) told DVB on the condition of anonymity that the number killed by the airstrike in Tanze may rise. Three civilians were killed and 20 were injured by an airstrike on a monastery in Kyakhat village of Tabayin Township on April 12.  

Tabayin was seized by resistance forces on August 18, 2024. The PDF told DVB there was no fighting between it and regime forces when the airstrikes occurred. 

“Three people were killed instantly,” a Mingin Township resident told DVB after an airstrike on Zinkale village April 11. Six homes there were destroyed. A spokesperson from the Mingin People’s Administration Team under the NUG told DVB that a drone was spotted flying over the village before the airstrike occurred. 

Three civilians were killed and at least two homes were destroyed by airstrikes on two villages in Kawlin Township on April 11. The PDF seized control of Kawlin on Nov. 6, 2024 but it was recaptured by regime forces during a counteroffensive Feb. 4-11, 2024. The NUG claims to partly control the town. 

At least 151 civilians have been killed and 269 have been injured in air and artillery attacks since March 28. Since the regime announced its ceasefire on April 2, it has carried out 216 attacks, according to DVB data.

People’s Defense Force seizes regime outpost in Magway Region; Airstrikes kill six in Sagaing Region

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One person was killed by an airstrike on a Buddhist monastery in Taze Township of Sagaing Region on April 13. (Credit: CJ)

The People’s Defense Force (PDF) in Magway Region told DVB on Wednesday that it seized a regime outpost on the Salin-Sidoktaya road in Magway on April 12. Salin and Sidoktaya are located 81 miles (130 km) northwest of the region’s capital Magway. 

“That road section is important for transporting military weapons and equipment,” a PDF spokesperson told DVB. “This is the first time we’ve captured an outpost on that road.”

PDF-led resistance forces also seized Indaw town in Sagaing Region on April 7 after a week-long offensive. 

The PDF was ordered to halt all offensive operations by the National Unity Government (NUG) during its original two-week ceasefire, March 30-April 13, which was extended to April 20. 

This means that the PDF must not re-engage with regime forces to allow earthquake relief aid to reach survivors unhindered, but the NUG ceasefire does allow fighting in cases of self-defense against regime attacks.

“People already suffering from the earthquake are now dealing with military attacks too,” said Win Myat Aye, the NUG Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Minister.

On April 12, the NUG held a press conference to call on the international community to establish a mechanism to monitor violations of the regime’s ceasefire, which is April 2-22.

Residents of Sagaing Region told DVB that regime airstrikes killed six civilians April 12-13. 

Five people, including three monks, were killed at a monastery in Kyarkhat village, located 60 miles (97 km) north of the region’s capital Monywa, on April 12. Another civilian was killed and three were injured in Taze Township, located 90 miles (145 km) northeast of Monywa, on April 13.

DVB data states that 153 air and artillery attacks have been carried out by regime forces nationwide since April 2. A total of 216 regime attacks have killed 151 people and injured 269 since the earthquake on March 28.

The death toll from the earthquake is 4,410, with 2,849 of these bodies being recovered in Mandalay, according to DVB data. Mandalay is 14 miles (22 km) east of the earthquake’s epicenter in Sagaing Township, which is located 67 miles (107 km) west of Monywa.

Several ethnic armed groups have declared their own ceasefires during the month of April to allow earthquake relief to reach those in need.

This includes the Arakan Army (AA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)—known collectively as the Brotherhood Alliance–as well as the Kachin Independence Army.

The NUG was established in April 2021, following the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup led by Min Aung Hlaing that ousted the National League for Democracy (NLD) government. The PDF is the armed wing of the NUG.

Several NLD members, ethnic nationality leaders, and human rights activists, make up the NUG leadership. It rejects a return to military rule in Myanmar and wants to establish the country as a federal democratic union.

Thingyan festival held in Myanmar despite calls for extended mourning period for earthquake victims

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Yangon residents attend the Walking Thingyan event on Maha Bandoola Road downtown on April 15. (Credit: DVB)

Yangon residents told DVB that the regime set up a “Walking Thingyan” event, where pedestrians enter a path with overhead sprinklers, on Maha Bandoola Road on Tuesday. The annual Thingyan festival takes place April 13–16, prior to the Myanmar New Year on April 17.

An anti-coup protest group called the Anti-Junta Alliance Yangon called on every Myanmar citizen to spend the four-days mourning the over 4,000 killed by the March 28 earthquake instead of celebrating the coming new year.

It set up a blackboard in Kandawgyi Park on April 13. Inscribed was a verse from the song Thingyan Moe: “Yellow blossoms are crying while everyone is singing and playing.” 

The regime announced at the beginning of the month that this year’s Thingyan festival would be subdued and quietly disassembled the Thingyan pavilion in front of the Yangon City Hall on April 6.

The event on Tuesday featured no music or dancing, but water splashing events were held in Yangon’s North Okkalapa, Shwepaukkan, Tamwe and Mingalar Taungnyunt townships, according to residents.

In Mandalay, no official Thingyan festival was held out of respect for the 2,788 residents killed by the earthquake. An unfinished Thingyan pavilion, set up by the regime Mandalay City Development Committee, was repurposed as an earthquake emergency relief center. 

Myanmar’s Thingyan Festival was officially recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Dec. 5. Regime media reported that there’s an effort to get thanaka, a traditional cosmetic paste, recognized by UNESCO. 

Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing, deputy leader Soe Win, and other officials, attended the opening ceremony of what it called a “peaceful” Thingyan event in Naypyidaw on April 13 despite 615 residents of the capital being killed during the earthquake.  

Residents of Bago Township told DVB that Thingyan festivities were cancelled in the region, as they were mourning the 80 residents who were killed during the earthquake.

Regime administrators told Bago residents that the 3,000 MMK ($0.6 USD) collected in donations from each family to build a Thingyan pavilion would instead go toward an earthquake relief fund.  

DVB has documented that the death toll from the March 28 earthquake is 4,346, with 7,890 people injured, and 210 missing. The regime updated its figures to 3,706, with 5,027 injured, and 130 missing.

Myanmar earthquake leaves 2.5 million tons of rubble, says UN

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A rescue team from the Myanmar Fire Services Department at Mandalay's Ingyin Condominium on April 6. The biulding collapsed during the earthquake on March 28. (Credit: The Fire Services Department)

The U.N. reported on Monday that at least 2.5 million tons of debris—equivalent to 125,000 truckloads—need to be cleared in the six hardest hit regions impacted by the 7.7 magnitude earthquake on March 28.

Residents of Sagaing – the earthquake’s epicenter – Mandalay, Naypyidaw, Bago, Magway and Shan State have lived outdoors among the rubble of buildings that collapsed over 20 days ago.

Titon Mitra, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) representative in Myanmar, said that over 60,000 people are staying at temporary displacement sites during a visit to Sagaing.

The U.N. added that over 10,000 homes and public service buildings may have been significantly damaged or destroyed, while 128 health facilities had a high likelihood of significant damage after they were exposed to severe or violent tremors during the two weeks that followed the March 28 earthquake.

On April 10, the U.N. appealed to the international community for $275 million USD to support the 1.1 million people in Myanmar impacted by the earthquake.

It requested $241.6 million USD to aid those in the most impacted regions and stated that it channeled $134 million USD from its 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for Myanmar.

The regime has calculated that 48,834 houses, 3,094 monasteries and nunneries, 2,045 schools, 2,171 offices and buildings, 148 bridges, and 5,275 pagodas, were destroyed by the earthquake.

The National Unity Government (NUG) made its own calculations, documenting that 32,368 houses, 5,324 religious buildings, 4,603 “infrastructure facilities” and 554 schools were either damaged or destroyed during the earthquake.

Sagaing Township residents told DVB that 90 percent of the town has been destroyed and the cost to rent heavy machinery to demolish a two-story building is 10 million MMK ($2,200 USD). DVB data states that at least 696 bodies have been recovered in Sagaing.

Residents of Amarapura and Chanmyathazi townships in Mandalay told DVB that the cost to rent machinery to demolish houses left uninhabitable due to damage caused by the earthquake is 100 million MMK ($22,000 USD). It costs an additional 20 million MMK ($4,400 USD) for rubble clearance.

Mandalay reported the highest death toll with 2,788 bodies recovered since the earthquake, according to DVB data.

Residents of Naypyidaw told DVB that they have received no assistance from regime authorities to date and that it costs 500,000 MMK ($110 USD) per day to rent a backhoe to clear rubble.

Naypyidaw reported 615 bodies recovered since the earthquake, according to DVB data.

Residents of Kaylar village, near Inle Lake in Nyaungshwe Township of southern Shan State, told DVB that they have been sleeping on their boats since 435 homes in the village were destroyed by the earthquake.

Thirty-one bodies have been recovered since the earthquake in Kaylar, according to DVB data.

Ethnic armed groups accused of extrajudicial killings

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The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army publicly executed five people in Lashio Township, northern Shan State, on April 10. (Credit: Unknown)

Legal professionals in Myanmar told DVB that the sentencing and execution of alleged criminals by ethnic armed groups in areas of the country under their control amounts to extrajudicial killings and serious human rights violations. 

“The accused in areas controlled by ethnic armed groups are denied the right to legal representation,” Min Lay, a lawyer who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) following the 2021 military coup, told DVB. 

This follows the public execution of five individuals accused of murder and armed robbery by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in Lashio, northern Shan State, on April 10.

The MNDAA seized control of Lashio on Aug. 3 after defeating regime forces stationed inside the Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters. Lashio is located 107 miles (172 km) south of the Myanmar-China border town of Muse and 243 miles (391 km) north of the Shan State capital Taunggyi.

In December, six people convicted by the MNDAA of murder and rape were publicly executed in Laukkai, the capital of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, which came under MNDAA control in January 2024 after it launched Operation 1027 on Oct. 27, 2023.

The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) sentenced a man to death on April 7 for the alleged abduction and murder of three children living at a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Laiza, the KIO headquarters. Laiza is located 71 miles (114 km) south of the Kachin State capital Myitkyina.

The United Wa State Army (UWSA) publicly executed a man for allegedly killing an eight-year-old in Hopang town on Oct. 30, reported the Wa News Land, a UWSA-affiliated media outlet. Hopang is located 336 miles (540 km) northeast of Taunggyi and 92 miles (148 km) east of Lashio. 

The UWSA gained control of Hopang and Panlong as the Brotherhood Alliance, which includes the MNDAA, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Arakan Army, handed over the towns on Jan. 10, 2024 after it seized control of them during Operation 1027. DVB requested more information from the UWSA, MNDAA and KIO on the legal system in areas under their control but received no response.

Malaysian Prime Minister to meet Myanmar regime leader in Thailand

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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim delivers a speech at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Investment Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on April 8, 2025. (Credit: Reuters)

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he will meet the head of Myanmar’s regime in Bangkok, Thailand, this week to push for the extension of a ceasefire between Naypyidaw and anti-regime forces to help with earthquake relief.

As the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year, Anwar said the meeting with regime leader Min Aung Hlaing on Thursday was being held on humanitarian grounds, as there continued to be no formal engagements between Myanmar and ASEAN.

Myanmar was hit by a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake last month that killed thousands and caused significant damage.

“I thank General Min Aung Hlaing for responding positively to our call… During my meeting with him on April 17, I will push for the ceasefire to be extended,” Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since early 2021, when the military’s overthrow of an elected civilian government sparked a civil war.

The regime and anti-regime forces have announced unilateral ceasefires to support the quake relief, but have accused each other of violating the agreements.

ASEAN wants Myanmar to implement the bloc’s five-point peace plan to halt the fighting, and has barred the regime from attending its meetings over their failure to comply.

Anwar said Malaysia will continue its humanitarian assistance for the earthquake-hit country through a temporary field hospital run by the Malaysian Armed Forces.

Min Aung Hlaing attended a summit in Bangkok earlier this month, a rare foreign trip for the leader who has been largely shunned internationally since the 2021 coup.

REUTERS

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