Children Bear Growing Toll of Junta Airstrikes in Myanmar’s Rakhine State

Children in Myanmar’s Rakhine State—also known as Arakan State—are facing some of the gravest consequences of the military regime’s relentless airstrikes, leaving young lives shattered by death, severe injuries, orphanhood, and lasting psychological trauma. As civilian casualties continue to mount across the region, children remain among the most vulnerable victims of the junta’s aerial campaigns. The military regime has intensified its airstrikes using fleets of aircraft against townships recently captured or controlled by the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed resistance group. According to the AA, a regime bombing on Yoengu Village in Ponnagyun Township on February 24, 2026, killed at least four children and critically injured three others. Among the survivors was four-year-old Ma Khaing Sandar Lin, who lost both of her legs in the attack. She now relies entirely on her family for daily survival. "Even if she is fitted with artificial limbs, someone will always have to help her," her grandmother, Daw Hla Sein Nyunt, told DMG. "Looking at her now breaks my heart. When she crawls around on her knees, I cannot bear to watch. When she sees other children walking, she looks at them with envy." Beyond catastrophic physical injuries, the aerial warfare has devastated families and abruptly halted children’s education and futures. In March 2025, an airstrike on Aungphyupyin Village, also in Ponnagyun Township, killed the parents and eldest brother of Ma Moe Moe Chay, forcing her to become the sole breadwinner and caretaker for her younger siblings. "Since my parents died, I can only afford to send one of my younger brothers to school," she said. "The other one, who is 15, also wants to study. But with rising medical expenses and daily living costs, I cannot support his education on a single income." Similar devastation has been documented in Pannilar and Yoetayoke villages in Ponnagyun Township, where children have suffered severe physical trauma, permanent disabilities, and displacement. Human rights advocates warn that the ongoing airstrikes systematically deprive children in opposition-controlled areas of their most fundamental rights—including the basic right to life, education, and safety.