UNOCHA says urgent need to protect education amid conflict in Myanmar

By Admin 24 Sep 2025

DMG Newsroom
24 September 2025, Mrauk-U

Incidents affecting schools in multiple states and regions have killed and injured students and teachers, disrupted learning, and heightened risks for children, underscoring urgent calls to protect education from attack, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Myanmar said in a statement on September 24.

Widespread conflict between the Myanmar military and non-state armed groups continues to drive near-daily civilian casualties and worsening protection concerns, leaving vulnerable communities increasingly exposed to violence and hardship, the statement added.

Twenty students, including a minor, were killed and 22 others injured in the junta bombing of a school in Thayet Ta Pin Village, Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, on September 12.

“Students are dying by the junta bombing of schools. These actions are inhumane human rights violations by the military regime. Schools and hospitals are not military targets. The international community cannot just watch these actions of the military regime,” said a local woman in Arakan State.

The Arakan Army’s Humanitarian and Development Coordination Office (HDCO) announced on September 13 that 47 schools were destroyed by the military regime’s air and artillery attacks from November 2023 to September 2025.

A military airstrike on a school in Ohteintwin Village, Depayin Township, Sagaing Region, killed 24 people — 22 children and two teachers — and injured nearly 50 others on May 12, 2025.

“The military regime’s indiscriminate attacks on civilians are not only a war crime but also a flagrant violation of international conventions,” said a local man in Arakan State. “Everyone knows that the UN itself is nothing more than sad and confused about these actions. This is also an act that undermines the people’s trust.”

Customary international humanitarian law requires any armed organisation to protect civilians and bars them from attacking, abducting or using civilians as human shields, or targeting civilian dwellings.

The military regime continues to carry out attacks on non-military areas, indiscriminately targeting civilians and military personnel, resulting in increasing civilian casualties.

The Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar (ISP–Myanmar) reported on September 19 that there were at least 92 incidents of mass civilian deaths from the military coup in February 2021 to September 16, 2025, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,808 civilians.