Myanmar junta strike kills 40 at festival protest: residents

AFP, Published in The Daily Star, October 8, 2025

A Myanmar military strike on a festival event and protest killed 40 people, including children, an attendee and a local committee member told AFP on Tuesday.

Myanmar has been reeling from civil war since the military seized power in a 2021 coup, prompting pro-democracy rebels to take up arms and ally with ethnic armed groups against the junta.

Hundreds of people were gathered in central Myanmar's Chaung U township for the Thadingyut full moon festival on Monday evening when the military dropped bombs on the crowd, according to a member of the committee that organised the event.

The woman, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said people were gathering for the festival and an anti-junta demonstration at around 7:00 pm when the bombs killed more than 40 people and wounded about 80 others.

"The committee alerted people and one-third of the crowd managed to flee," she told AFP. "But immediately, one motor-powered paraglider flew right over the crowd", dropping two bombs on the centre of the gathering.

"Children were completely torn apart," said the woman, who was not at the scene but attended funerals on Tuesday.