Four people were killed and 35 injured in a junta airstrike on an independent community funded and run school in Kanyinkataik Village in Karen State’s Kawakareik Township on 9 June 2025.
The airstrike hit a house that the school was being run in at 2:00 pm on 9 June and killed a teacher, two children and the owner of the house, according to a witness from the village.
He said to KIC: “The village doesn’t have a junta-run school, so the community was really worried the children would miss out on an education. That’s why they came together, hired a teacher, and opened an independent school. During the junta’s airstrike, three bombs landed inside the village, and one of them hit the school directly. The house owner, the teacher, and two children were killed on the spot. In total, 35 people, both kids and adults were injured. Two or three of them are in critical condition.”
Rescue teams and relief groups in Kanyinkataik Village coordinated transporting the injured to Mawlamyine City, the capital of neighbouring Mon State, for medical treatment.
There was no fighting in the area of Kanyinkataik Village when the airstrike hit, according to locals.
Following the airstrike on Kanyinkataik Village, airstrikes targeted Kyondoe Town and the villages of Ohntapin and Inngyi in Kawkareik Township. Additionally Light Infantry Battalions (LIBs) 545 and 546 based in Kyondoe, shelled the nearby Kawkareik Township villages of Kawtwe and Kanni with artillery.
