Myanmar's military strikes village in paramotor raid, killing at least 20 people including children

The strike on a village killed at least 20 people including children, and wounded more than 50 others.

Myanmar's military carried out a paraglider strike on a village that killed at least 20 people including children, and wounded more than 50 others, according to a member of a resistance group, villagers and media reports.

The Monday night attack was carried out by a motorized paraglider, and targeted a village in the country's central Sagaing region that was celebrating a Buddhist festival that included a rally calling for the release of political prisoners held by Myanmar's military government, the reports said.

Myanmar is in a civil war that began after the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Much of the country, including the village of Bon To village where the attack took place, is under the control of resistance forces. The area is about 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Mandalay, the country's second-largest city.

"The sickening reports emerging from the ground in central Myanmar following a nighttime attack late on Monday should serve as a gruesome wake-up call that civilians in Myanmar need urgent protection," the human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement.

More than 100 people from Bon To and nearby villages had gathered at the village's primary school compound Monday evening for an oil lamp lighting ceremony to mark the end of Buddhist Lent and to call for the release of political prisoners including Suu Kyi, said a member of a local resistance group who attended the event.