The market became a scene of devastation
The death toll from a Myanmar airstrike on a crowded market in the western town of Kyauktaw rose to 50 on Tuesday, after rescuers pulled more bodies from the rubble and fires the morning after the attack, according to the rebel group that controls the area and local aid workers. At least 58 people were wounded, 22 of them critically, in what the Arakan Army called one of the most severe airstrikes Rakhine state has suffered since the country’s civil war began.
The strike hit a riverside commercial hub in Kyauktaw, Rakhine state, around midday on Monday. A fighter jet dropped two bombs near the local market — the region’s main wholesale centre, crowded with vendors, shoppers and cargo loaders at the time — according to an Arakan Army statement released early Tuesday. Reuters reported that the numbers were confirmed by local aid workers at the scene.
Toll climbed as the rescue went on
Initial reports on Monday put the death toll at around 30, but it climbed through the night as rescuers kept working. An earlier Arakan Army statement on Tuesday said 49 had been killed before the figure rose again to 50, said aid worker Wai Hun Aung, who has been posting updates and photos from the scene.
“The death toll has reached 50, and 58 people were injured,” Wai Hun Aung told reporters, warning that the final fatality figure may be even higher because some bodies were lost in fires that followed the bombing. A second local volunteer at the scene gave the same toll of 50 but asked not to be named for security reasons, according to AFP.
The Arakan Army said those killed were “innocent passersby, market vendors, shoppers and cargo loaders.” Photos shared on social media by Wai Hun Aung showed women and children among the bodies recovered on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Other images showed buildings on fire, damaged vehicles and sections of a nearby bridge destroyed — the adjacent Kisapanadi Bridge was also damaged in the attack.
Arakan Army vows to retaliate
The Arakan Army, the ethnic armed group that controls Kyauktaw and nearly all of Rakhine state, blamed the Myanmar military for deliberately targeting civilians. Spokesman Khine Thu Kha said the military “deliberately targeted densely populated markets, schools, civilians, and residential buildings through airstrikes,” and vowed that the group would use all available means to retaliate against the military and anyone involved in the bombing of civilians, Reuters reported.
The Myanmar military could not be reached for comment on the attack. A Myanmar government spokesperson did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military has previously said it “exercises maximum restraint to avoid civilian harm.”
A lifeline market, cut off by war
The market that was bombed had become one of Rakhine’s most important trading points since the civil war broke out after the February 2021 military coup. Largely cut off from the rest of Myanmar, Rakhine has suffered some of the direst conditions in the war — and the Kyauktaw market thrived on a river trade route to India that had become a lifeline, according to AFP.
The Arakan Army now controls almost all of Rakhine, except for a few urban centres still defended by the military, which has relied on air power against rebel-held territory. Rights groups have accused the air wing of committing atrocities targeting civilians at schools, monasteries and religious festivals.
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Five years of war, no end in sight
Myanmar has been locked in a nationwide civil war since the 2021 coup, with an alliance of armed groups — including the Arakan Army — fighting the military. The conflict has killed around 100,000 people and displaced more than 3.5 million in what is one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries, according to Reuters. Nearly 500,000 people are living displaced inside Rakhine alone, UN data shows.
The Kyauktaw strike is Rakhine’s deadliest such attack since a hospital bombing in December that killed at least 30 people. With the Arakan Army vowing retaliation and the toll still possibly rising, the bombing threatens to deepen one of the war’s deadliest flashpoints.
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This is a developing story. Figures cited are those reported by the Arakan Army and local aid workers; the Associated Press noted that details of the attack could not be independently verified.
