A military airstrike has hit a busy market in western Myanmar, killing about 50 people and injuring many others, according to local aid workers and witnesses.
Families spent Tuesday searching for bodies around a burnt market in western Myanmar after a military airstrike killed 50 people, one of the deadliest recent bombings of the civil war.
Witnesses said the air force hit the riverside trading hub in Kyauktaw town, Rakhine state, around midday on Monday.
Aid worker Wai Aung said 58 people were also injured and warned the final toll may be higher because some bodies were lost in the fires.
A local volunteer gave the same figures.
The initial reported toll was about 30.
The Myanmar military could not be reached for comment.
The Arakan Army, the rebel force that controls the area, said the dead were passersby, market vendors, shoppers and cargo loaders.
Relatives gathered to claim bodies covered in thin plastic sheets or placed in plywood coffins under an open pavilion.
Aung Chay, 49, is still looking for his brother in law and said it breaks his heart to see his people dying.
He said he feels deep pain and anger and does not know where to find the body or who to ask for help.
UN rights chief Volker Türk said the strike shows the grave plight of civilians across the country, and most of all in Rakhine state.
The market and nearby bridge had become a busy trading spot since the civil war began after the 2021 coup.
Rakhine is largely cut off from the rest of Myanmar, and the market thrived on a river trade route to India that became a lifeline.
ACLED analyst Su Mon said there have been only 10 air raids on civilians with more than 30 reported deaths since 2022.
She said Rakhine has suffered the military’s mass killings the most.
The Arakan Army controls almost all of Rakhine except a few urban centres still held by the military, which has a fleet of fighter jets.
She said the military wants to regain control and began an offensive this month that has not brought battlefield success.
The military air wing has also been accused of attacking schools, monasteries and religious festivals, which rights groups say may amount to war crimes.
Nearly 500,000 people are displaced in Rakhine, according to UN data.
ACLED estimates more than 100,000 people have been killed in Myanmar since the 2021 coup removed Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government.
