From January to August 2023 the Myanmar junta conducted 478 airstrikes killing 364 civilians and injuring 331, according to a report by Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica.

The report, released on 23 October by Nyan Lynn Thit Analytic, an independent non-governmental organisation (NGO), revealed that in the first eight months of the year, there had been an average of almost two airstrikes a day, 40 per cent more airstrikes than in all of 2022.

According to the report, the airstrikes were not just limited to military targets, they also hit civilian gatherings, hospitals, schools, religious structures, residential buildings, and internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps. At least 58 religious buildings, 33 schools, and 15 hospitals were damaged in the airstrikes.

This year, the majority of the airstrikes have been launched in the ethnic states of Karenni, Chin, Karen, Kachin, Shan and Mon, and the regions of Sagaing, Bago, Magway, Tanintharyi and Mandalay, and the Naypyidaw Council area.

There has been a considerable rise in civilian casualties and damage to civilian structures this year, compared to other years, according to Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica.

In all of 2022, there were 339 airstrikes across the country that killed 260 civilians and injured 85.

From the 1 February 2021 coup until the end of December 2021, the junta launched 85 airstrikes that killed 63 civilians and injured 42.

In total, since the 1 February 2021 coup until 31 August 2023, the junta has launched 902 airstrikes that have killed 687 civilians and injured 458.

Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica sourced the figures on which it based its report by using information from over 40 news media sources and more than 1,300 social network pages linked to defence forces and revolutionary organisations.