Five Chin National Army soldiers were killed in a Myanmar junta airstrike on Victoria Camp, the Chin National Front/Chin National Army (CNF/CNA) headquarters, in Chin State’s Thantlang Township, on 10 January.

Victoria Camp is just on the Myanmar side of the border with India.

At 4:30 p.m. two junta aircraft dropped five bombs, one of which exploded in Mizoram, India.

Five CNA soldiers, two of whom were female, were killed and at least another 10 were injured.

CNF/CNA spokesperson Salai Htet Ni said to Mizzima: “Three of the five bombs exploded in the camp. The CNA soldiers were killed by the explosions.

The Indian government had yet to issue a statement about the bomb that landed on Indian territory.

The airstrike also damaged a house, a clinic and some other buildings on the Myanmar side of the border. On the Indian side of the border the force of the explosions shattered a lorry’s windscreen.

The Interim Chin National Consultative Council (ICNCC) also strongly condemned the attack in a statement that said now is a critical time in the history of the Chin people and it encouraged the people and revolutionary forces to unite and work together to achieve the common goal of defeating the junta.

The dead CNF soldiers were named as: Salai van Robyan, Mai Ngong Lay Pao, Mai Shwe Lan Pao, Salai Douthin, and Salai Kilman.

The CNF was formed on 20 March 1988 and it signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in 2012, but since the February 2021 coup there has been some fierce fighting in Chin State and many people have been displaced. The junta has set fire to Thantlang Town over 25 times gutting more than 1,000 houses out of a total of 1,800 houses in the town, causing the entire civilian population to flee.