2025 Mrauk-U hospital airstrike

Mrauk U hospital airstrike
Part of the Myanmar civil war
Mrauk U
Mrauk U (Myanmar)
Location20°35′37″N 93°11′30″E / 20.5935°N 93.1916°E / 20.5935; 93.1916
Mrauk U, Mrauk-U Township, Rakhine State, Myanmar
Date10 December, 2025
At 21:13 MMT
TargetHospital
Attack type
Airstrike
WeaponsBombs dropped from military aircraft
Deaths33-34
Injured70-80+
PerpetratorsTatmadaw (Myanmar military)

On the night of 10 December 2025, a Myanmar military airstrike struck the general hospital in Mrauk‑U Township, located in western Rakhine State, Myanmar. The attack killed approximately more than 33 people and injured more than 70–80, including patients, caregivers, and hospital staff.[1][2] The bombing caused severe destruction to the facility, leaving wards, operating theaters, and nearby residential areas damaged. According to witnesses, aid workers, and the local group Arakan Army (AA), the strike was carried out by the military junta. The attack occurred amid the preceding Myanmar's planned national elections on 28 December 2025 and coincided with International Human Rights Day which drew attention for targeting a civilian medical facility.[3][4][5]

Background

The hospital is one of Mrauk-U’s most popular as it was known for being well-equipped. In February 2024, the town was captured by the Arakan Army, an armed group composed mainly of ethnic Rakhine who are the majority in the state.[6][7]

In recognition of Human Rights Day, just hours ahead of the bombing, the EU, UK, Canada, Norway, and Australia issued statements denouncing Myanmar's human rights violations.[8]

Attack

The airstrike took place on Wednesday, 10 December 2025, at approximately 9:13 pm local time (21:13) in Mrauk‑U Township.[9] Myanmar military's air force carried out the attack using a jet fighter, which dropped at least two bombs on the hospital compound.[10] One bomb hit the recovery and ward area, while the other struck near the main hospital building. According to the Arakan Army health department, 10 patients were directly killed at the point.[2] The bombs were approximately 500 pounds (226 kg) each.[11][10]

The main target of the bombing was the Mrauk U General Hospital which was capable of potentially 300 patients.[12] Large parts of the hospital were completely destroyed, including the main hall, operating theatre, and wards. Surrounding infrastructure, homes, and vehicles also suffered significant blast and shrapnel damage.[13][14]

Casualties and damage

According to the Arakan Army spokesperson Khaing Thu Kha, more than 33 individuals were reported death, including both patients and caregivers, with 70–80 people being injured.[15] Among the 33 individuals who passed away, 17 were males and 16 were females. Among the 27 individuals who were injured, 18 were males and 7 were females.[16][8] Furthermore, 49 individuals experienced slight injuries. Those affected included hospital staff, support workers, patients, and family members. The hospital was a civilian medical facility, and the attack struck directly inside the building, not just nearby, which contributed to the high death toll.[17] According to local sources, 3 local Muslims were also reportedly killed.[8][18]

Hospital infrastructures including wards, recovery areas, and staff housing was either destroyed or severely compromised leaving the facility in ruins.[19] Residents later discovered bodies and wounded people shortly after hearing loud explosions.[20][13][2]

Aftermath and reactions

The remaining patients were relocated to a secure location shortly after the strike.[21]

The attack drew condemnations and statements of condolences from several international actors, such as the European Union[22], Doctors Without Borders (MSF)[23], the National Unity Government of Myanmar[24], UN officials like Volker Türk[25], WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus[26], ASEAN[27], and Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry[28]. All issued similar statements terming the attack as a war crime which violated international law, expressed support for the victims and their families, and demanded a full investigation.[29][30]

Continued strikes

The day after the bombing of Mrauk-U Hospital, the military junta further bombed Ngalunzu village cluster in Kyaukphyu Township with a jet fighter killing eight civilians and injuring ten.[31][32]

Later, the military junta issued a statement claiming the bombing targeted only armed groups' camps disguised as a hospital.[33][34]

See also

References

  1. ^ Staff, Al Jazeera. "Dozens killed as Myanmar military gov't launches air strike on hospital". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  2. ^ a b c "Myanmar: More than 30 dead after military air strike hits hospital". www.bbc.com. 2025-12-11. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  3. ^ "At least 33 killed in Junta bombing on hospital in Rakhine state of Myanmar". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  4. ^ "At least 31 killed in Myanmar airstrike: Mrauk-U hospital bombed, says aid worker". The Financial Express. 2025-12-11. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  5. ^ "More than 30 dead after Myanmar military air strike hits hospital – MyJoyOnline". Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  6. ^ ludunwayoo (2025-12-11). "အရပ်သား ၃၅ဦးသေဆုံးတဲ့ စစ်တပ်ရဲ့မြောက်ဦးဆေးရုံ လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုလုပ်ရပ် NUG ရှုတ်ချ". LuduNwayOo (in Burmese). Retrieved 2025-12-12.
  7. ^ "Strike on hospital in rebel-controlled area of Myanmar kills 34, injures 80". Business Standard.
  8. ^ a b c Irrawaddy, The (2025-12-11). "Hospital Massacre in Mrauk-U: Junta Airstrike Kills 33, Injures 76". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  9. ^ "Mrauk-U hospital bombing death toll surpasses 30, injuries exceed 70". Burma News International. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  10. ^ a b "Nighttime airstrike on hospital leaves 34 dead 80 injured in Myanmar". The Week. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  11. ^ "Families of Mrauk-U Hospital bombing victims urge international sanctions on Myanmar military". Development Media Group. Retrieved 2025-12-17.
  12. ^ "Myanmar: At least 30, including patients, killed after junta airstrike hits hospital, say witnesses". The Indian Express. 2025-12-11. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  13. ^ a b "Myanmar: Deadly military air strike on hospital shows vicious disregard for right to life". Amnesty International. 2025-12-11. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  14. ^ "At least 30 killed in Myanmar after junta airstrike hits hospital, witnesses report". Reuters.
  15. ^ "Myanmar military strike on hospital kills at least 35 - UCA News". ucanews.com. Retrieved 2025-12-13.
  16. ^ "Death toll rises to 33 civilians with 76 injured in Myanmar military junta bombing on Mrauk-U hospital: U Khaing Thu Kha". www.narinjara.com. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  17. ^ "A nighttime airstrike on a hospital leaves 34 dead and 80 injured in Myanmar". AP News. 2025-12-11. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  18. ^ "မြောက်ဦးဆေးရုံကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်ဗုံးကြဲမှုအတွင်း မွတ်ဆလင်နှစ်ဦးလည်း သေဆုံး". burmese.narinjara.com (in Burmese). Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  19. ^ "WHO chief appalled by deadly attack on hospital in Myanmar's Rakhine State". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 2025-12-12.
  20. ^ "At least 30 killed in Myanmar after junta airstrike hits hospital, witnesses report". www.geo.tv. 2025-12-11. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  21. ^ "UN rights chief says air strike on hospital in Myanmar could amount to war crime, calls for investigation". Arab News. Retrieved 2025-12-12.
  22. ^ "EU says Myanmar hospital attack violates international humanitarian law". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  23. ^ "Deadly airstrike on a hospital in Mrauk-U | MSF". www.msf.org. Retrieved 2025-12-13.
  24. ^ ludunwayoo (2025-12-11). "အရပ်သား ၃၅ဦးသေဆုံးတဲ့ စစ်တပ်ရဲ့မြောက်ဦးဆေးရုံ လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုလုပ်ရပ် NUG ရှုတ်ချ". LuduNwayOo (in Burmese). Retrieved 2025-12-12.
  25. ^ "UN rights chief says air strike on hospital in Myanmar could amount to war crime, calls for investigation". Arab News PK. 2025-12-12. Retrieved 2025-12-13.
  26. ^ "Myanmar: At least 30, including patients, killed after junta airstrike hits hospital, say witnesses". The Indian Express. 2025-12-11. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  27. ^ "Asean condemns Myanmar hospital airstrike, urges halt to violence". The Star. 2025-12-13. Retrieved 2025-12-13.
  28. ^ Report, Star Online (2025-12-13). "Bangladesh condemns bombing of Rakhine hospital in Myanmar". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2025-12-13.
  29. ^ globalarakannetwork (2025-12-11). "At Least 30 International Media Outlets and the UN Human Rights Office Strongly Condemn the Junta's Horrific Airstrike on Mrauk-U Hospital". Global Arakan Network. Retrieved 2025-12-13.
  30. ^ Irrawaddy, The (2025-12-16). "Editorial | Junta's War Crimes Continue, Shielded by China, Russia—and US Silence". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 2025-12-16.
  31. ^ "ကျောက်ဖြူမြို့နယ်ကိုအကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်က ထပ်မံ ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်သည့်အတွက် အရပ်သား ၈ ဦးသေပြီး ၁၀ ဦးဒဏ်ရာရရှိသွားခဲ့ကြောင်း AAထုတ်ပြန်". burmese.narinjara.com (in Burmese). Retrieved 2025-12-12.
  32. ^ "Junta bombs Kyaukphyu a day after Mrauk-U hospital airstrike, killing eight". Bnionline.net. 12 December 2025. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  33. ^ "Myanmar's military says armed groups used hospital it bombed as base". euronews. 2025-12-13. Retrieved 2025-12-13.
  34. ^ "စစ်အုပ်စုက မြောက်ဦးဆေးရုံဗုံးကြဲမှုအပေါ် နိုင်ငံတော်အဆင့် လိမ်လည်သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်". burmese.narinjara.com (in Burmese). Retrieved 2025-12-13.
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