Amnesty International said the army launched a paragliding attack on a nighttime civilian gathering.
Published on October 8, 2025
More than 20 people have been killed in central Myanmar after the military launched motorized paraglider attacks during an anti-government candlelight vigil, according to Amnesty International and media reports.
The attacks hit a village in Myanmar’s Sagaing region Monday evening as community members gathered to mark a Buddhist festival and call for the release of political prisoners, among other demands, according to reports.
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“This would be the latest in a long line of attacks stretching back almost five years to the start of the 2021 military coup,” said international Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman.
“As the military attempts to solidify power with a stage-managed election later this year, it is intensifying an already brutal campaign against pockets of resistance,” he said.
The Chaung-U township attacks came in two waves at 8 p.m. (1:30 p.m. GMT) and then at 11 p.m. (4:30 p.m. GMT), killing between 20 and 32 people and injuring dozens, according to The Irrawaddy, an independent media outlet based in Thailand.
The official death toll has not been confirmed, but the use of motorized paragliders is a known tactic by Myanmar’s military to abandon munitions at civilian sites, according to the United Nations human rights office.
Myanmar has been torn by civil war since 2021 between the military-led government, armed opposition groups and ethnic armed organizations following a military coup that removed a democratically elected leadership.
The conflict has killed more than 75,000 people and displaced more than 3 million, according to UN estimates.
The military has often attacked civilians or ethnic minority communities like Chaung-U township that are near strongholds of armed groups, according to rights groups.
A BBC investigation in 2024 estimated that the military controlled only about 20% of the country, while the armed opposition and ethnic armed groups controlled about 40% of Myanmar’s territory, the rest territory contested by the various forces.
The military government lifted a long-standing state of emergency in July and called for elections at the end of the year, but critics, like Japan’s government, say a peace process is first needed before Myanmar can restore a “democratic political system.”
Freeman of Amnesty International called for more action from international groups like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN.
“[ASEAN] Must increase pressure on the junta and overhaul an approach that has failed the people of Myanmar for almost five years as the coup deposed the country’s democratically elected government,” he said. The United Nations Security Council should also refer the situation in Myanmar as a whole to the International Criminal Court. “
