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As many as 80 people are said to have been killed in an airstrike on a large crowd in Myanmar on Monday.
Fighter jets dropped four bombs on a group of several hundred people who had gathered at a facility in the outskirts of Hpakant in northern Myanmar, people who attended the gathering and an aid worker said.
The crowd was made up of Kachins, a minority group in the north that has long sought independence from the Myanmar central government. They celebrated the 62nd anniversary of the group’s largest umbrella organization KIO.
During Monday, at least 60 people were said to have been killed and around 100 injured. Several of the dead were performers, according to the Kachin. The death toll has since risen in later statements.
The data has not been verified by any third party. Myanmar’s military junta confirmed late Monday night that an attack had taken place, but described it as entirely necessary and targeting “terrorists” in an armed Kachin group. The junta dismisses the reported high death toll as “rumors”.
The UN envoy in the country as well as a number of Western countries’ ambassadors have condemned the attack.
Myanmar has been a divided country for decades, with many ethnic groups rebelling to achieve autonomy. Since the junta’s seizure of power at the beginning of last year, armed resistance groups have been formed which have partly made common cause with, among other things, the armed groups of the Kachin.