A 38-year-old Buddhist monk and two 60-year-old women were killed by airstrikes carried out by the Myanmar Air Force on Shwebo Township’s Sinin village, Sagaing Region, April 3-8.
Eight civilians, including two girls, were injured at the Sinin village monastery. Residents told DVB that two pagodas, 10 homes, a school, and an unknown number of shelters inside the monastery compound were destroyed. Shwebo is located 57 miles (91 km) northeast of the Sagaing Region capital Monywa.
“Innocent civilians, monasteries, clinics, hospitals and schools are not military targets. It is a war crime to bomb and attack civilians and non-military targets,” a People’s Defence Force (PDF) member in Sagaing Region told DVB, adding that five fighter jets from neighbouring Mandalay Region’s Tada-U and Meiktila Air Force bases dropped a total of 14 bombs on Shwebo April 3-8.
No casualties were reported in the airstrikes on April 8. A monk, who was also a teacher at the monastery, was killed while taking children to an air raid shelter on April 3. An elderly woman died from a heart attack. Another woman was killed from excessive bleeding during the airstrike on April 6.
A resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity that more than 300 residents displaced from their homes in Mandalay Region are temporarily sheltering in Shwebo’s Sinin village and need urgent healthcare, medicine and food.
Sinin village has a population of over 1,500 households. Most of the village was destroyed by arson attacks carried out by regime forces in November 2022. The military abandoned the village in June 2024 following a PDF offensive.
The PDF has warned Shwebo residents to avoid large gatherings as the military counteroffensive continues across Sagaing Region, especially during the Thingyan festival next week, April 13-16.
The National Unity Government (NUG), an interim administration representing lawmakers ousted in the 2021 coup, stated that more than 2,320 civilians were killed and over 4,140 were injured by airstrikes carried out by the Myanmar Air Force across the country in 2025.
It added that more than 3,570 homes, over 100 educational infrastructures, over 30 healthcare facilities and 190 religious buildings were destroyed during those airstrikes.
At least 2,181 people have been killed in 2,788 aerial attacks across the country since March 28, according to DVB data. Out of those 2,788 aerial attacks, 618 occurred in Sagaing Region.
