IIMM Marks One Year Since Oe Htein Kwin School Massacre; 640+ Airstrikes Have Killed or Injured Children Since 2021 Coup — Pattern Continuing in 2026

The UN's Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) published a statement on May 16, 2026, marking the first anniversary of the May 12, 2025 airstrike on a school in Oe Htein Kwin village, Sagaing Region, which killed more than 20 students, according to Mizzima reporting. The IIMM statement documented that children were killed or injured in at least 640 airstrikes between February 2021 and 2025, and that attacks targeting civilians in locations where children are likely to be present — schools, monasteries, markets, and IDP camps — continue unabated in 2026. In early May 2026 alone, an SAC air assault killed at least five children aged 5 months to 10 years at a village playground in Chin State — almost certainly the May 1, 2026 strike on Khawpuichhip and Zimpi villages near the Mizoram border that killed five children and one adult. The IIMM head stated that 'attacks on children are particularly heinous' and emphasized the Mechanism's investigative focus on strikes that 'directly target civilians in locations where children are likely to be present.' The Oe Htein Kwin anniversary comes days after ACLED data showed airstrike deaths of children in Myanmar accelerating: 2025 recorded 2,602 air attacks — the highest annual count since the coup — and 2026 operations are on track to match or exceed that pace. Schools have become systematic targets: in May 2026 alone, the junta has struck boarding schools in Kyauktaw killing 19 high school students (May 7), and three Sagaing Region schools in Ye-U and Kani townships. The Oe Htein Kwin school bombing is part of a pattern documented by the IIMM, UN Special Rapporteur, Human Rights Watch, and ACLED of deliberate, systematic targeting of civilian educational infrastructure as collective punishment against communities in resistance-controlled areas. The NUG called on ASEAN on May 13, 2026, to adopt 'clear, time-bound benchmarks for the cessation of airstrikes' in direct reference to this pattern.