Over 2,300 Civilians Killed in Mass Slaughter Incidents Across Myanmar Since Coup, ISP-Myanmar Reports
Incidents of mass civilian killings across Myanmar have risen to at least 115 since the February 2021 military coup, according to data released by the Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar).
The research organization defined mass killing incidents as events involving 10 or more civilian fatalities. ISP-Myanmar documented that these incidents have claimed at least 2,324 lives over the past five years, with approximately 65 percent of the deaths directly caused by military regime airstrikes.
The data follows a devastating September 28 airstrike on India Market and the Kissapanadi Bridge in Kyauktaw Town, Arakan (Rakhine) State, which killed 50 civilians and injured at least 57 others. ISP-Myanmar identified the bombing as the single largest mass casualty event recorded in Arakan State to date.
"The military is slaughtering everyone they encounter, sparing neither children nor the elderly," said Daw Nwe Nwe Yi, a resident of Phayarpaung Village whose husband was killed in the Kyauktaw market attack. "Whether people stay at home, in their villages, or travel on the road, they are being targeted wherever they are."
According to the monitoring group, large-scale military offensives have intensified across the Kachin, Arakan, and Kayin battlefronts under General Ye Win Oo’s leadership as military chief.
Facing widespread ground setbacks, the regime has increasingly relied on heavy aerial bombardment and drone strikes on non-military locations.
Human rights monitors and civil society representatives highlighted that targeting civilian infrastructure violates both domestic military regulations and international humanitarian law.
"Military law explicitly forbids attacking civilian areas or executing unarmed individuals," said social aid worker and writer Wai Hun Aung. "Intentionally slaughtering civilians despite these strict regulations constitutes a blatant violation of international law."
ISP-Myanmar warned that protective safeguards for non-combatants have collapsed to critically low levels as regime forces continue to strike homes, religious buildings, hospitals, and schools in resistance-held territories and active conflict zones across the country.
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