Attack kills 29 displaced people in Myanmar

BANGKOK, Oct 10 (BBC): At least 29 people, including children, have been killed in an artillery strike on a displaced persons camp in north-east Myanmar, near the Chinese border.

The camp is in an area controlled by the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), one of several ethnic insurgent groups which have been fighting for self-rule for many decades. All the victims were civilians, a KIO spokesman told the BBC.

It is one the deadliest attacks in the 63 year-long conflict in Kachin State. Kachin officials say the armed forces have scaled up attacks on KIO-run areas over the past year because of growing Kachin support for other insurgent groups fighting the military government.

Much of Myanmar has been embroiled in a wider civil war since a 2021 military coup displaced the country's elected government. The military has increasingly used air strikes against opposition-controlled towns and villages since seizing power.