The Myanmar’s military council used internationally banned cluster munitions during the airstrike on Auk Chiang village in Station 13 of Mindat Township, Chin State, the Mindat Township People’s Administration claimed in a statement.
The junta carried out the airstrike on Auk Chiang village on the afternoon of 3 April, injuring five civilians – a two-year-old girl, a four-year-old boy, a 28-year-old woman, a 47-year-old woman, and a 53-year-old man. Some other people also suffered minor injuries, the statement said.
The cluster munition attack caused fires that destroyed surrounding forests near the village and 12 houses. Several houses, the school, and the teacher’s quarters were also damaged according to the information and records team of the Mindat Township People’s Administration.
The unexploded bomblets (droplets) from the cluster munitions still pose landmine threats to the local population, the Mindat Township People’s Administration said.
The township administration advises the population to be cautious when traveling to their homes, villages and farms, and not to touch or move any unexploded ordnance, rockets, mines, metal objects, or wires that they may come across, and to report the location immediately to the relevant administrative and security forces.
The junta had also used similar cluster munitions in an airstrike on Pan Par village in Station 1 of Mindat Township on 16 April 2023, killing three civilians and injuring at least six others.
Cluster munitions can have unexploded submunitions that remain active and can later explode like landmines, posing a danger to the civilian population.
Myanmar has not signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use of cluster munitions.
Sent by KMG.