&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Myanmar junta stepping up air strikes on civilians, UN investigators warn")
Myanmar's military has intensified its aerial attacks on civilians, with the country's conflict showing no sign of easing, UN investigators said Tuesday (Aug 11). The military escalated such attacks and other crimes against civilians ahead of the elections completed in January, and these strikes have since "continued unabated," the United Nations' Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) stated.
The tightly restricted vote, held by the ruling military junta, resulted in an uncontested win for its allies in civilian politics.
Covering the period from July 2025 to June 2026, the IIMM's annual report documented a pattern of deliberate aerial strikes on civilians alongside arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence carried out by Myanmar's military. The report stated, "The frequency and intensity of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Myanmar military and by various armed groups continued to escalate."
Myanmar's junta took power in a coup on February 1, 2021, removing Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government and ending a decade of democratic rule, plunging the country into violent conflict and a humanitarian emergency. According to the report, aerial attacks have struck homes, schools, medical centres, religious sites and camps for displaced people, resulting in deaths, injuries and destruction. It added that the "military's increasing reliance on paramotors and drones has made attacks harder for civilians to detect, limiting their ability to flee or seek shelter."
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Investigators said fighting in Rakhine State, between the military and the Arakan Army rebel group, "intensified significantly" during the reporting period, while conflicts nationwide between the regime and armed groups "showed no signs of abating,"UN noted. The team documented extensive evidence of arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence in military detention facilities, including cases tied to a 2025 law criminalising election criticism, under which people face up to 20 years' imprisonment or death for acts such as critical social media posts.
IIMM chief Nicholas Koumjian said: "Behind every piece of evidence we collect are people whose lives have been devastated by these crimes." He added that communities face both ongoing violence and its lasting impact, stressing accountability is urgently needed. The IIMM said it was losing resources amid funding cuts even as crimes intensify.
