UN Calls for Probe After Airstrike Destroys Myanmar Hospital, Killing at Least 30

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday demanded an investigation into a deadly airstrike on a hospital in Myanmar’s Rakhine state that killed at least 30 people, including patients. UN rights chief Volker Türk said the attack could constitute a war crime.

More than 70 others were injured in the strike, which local officials and rebel forces blamed on the ruling junta. The hospital, located in Mrauk U township in western Rakhine, lies in territory largely controlled by the Arakan Army, an ethnic insurgent group fighting the military across the coastal region.

Khine Thu Kha, an Arakan Army spokesperson, said the facility was hit directly by bombs dropped from a military aircraft late Wednesday. “The Mrauk U General Hospital was completely destroyed,” he told Reuters. “The high number of casualties occurred because the hospital took a direct hit.” The junta did not respond to requests for comment.

Myanmar has been engulfed in conflict since the army seized power in 2021, toppling the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Health services in parts of Rakhine have collapsed amid fierce fighting, and aid worker Wai Hun Aung said the 300-bed hospital had been overflowing with patients at the time of the strike.

“I am appalled and condemn in the strongest possible terms the strikes on Rakhine hospital,” Türk wrote on X, warning of fresh waves of violence and fear.

Hospital Reduced to Rubble

Images shared by aid workers on Thursday showed the hospital in ruins — its roof collapsed, columns destroyed, and bodies laid out on the ground. Reuters could not independently verify the photos. Survivors and remaining patients were moved to safer locations, Wai Hun Aung said.

A 23-year-old Mrauk U resident who arrived shortly after the explosions described finding the building in flames. “I saw many bodies lying around and many injured people,” he said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

The junta, which maintains Myanmar’s only air force, has escalated the use of airstrikes in rebel-held areas. From January to late November, it carried out 2,165 strikes — already surpassing the 1,716 recorded for all of 2024, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

The U.S. State Department expressed deep concern and urged the junta to allow unfettered humanitarian access, release political prisoners, and engage in dialogue with opposition groups. Such steps, it said, are essential for regional stability.

Resistance groups formed after the coup have increasingly joined forces with established ethnic armies like the Arakan Army. Following the collapse of a ceasefire in 2023, the Arakan Army has seized control of 14 out of 17 Rakhine townships — an area larger than Belgium — according to an analysis by the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.

Mrauk U township has been under Arakan Army control since last year and had not seen recent fighting, Khine Thu Kha added.