Wire reporting: (AFP, via Arab News)

Witnesses and a local rescue worker said a Myanmar military airstrike on Friday evening killed 12 people at a camp for displaced civilians in Rakhine state, according to reporting published Saturday^1,2.

The strike hit Byar La internally displaced persons camp in Ponnagyun township, northeast of the state capital Sittwe, Arab News reported, carrying an AFP dispatch². Al Jazeera, citing rescuers, said a five-year-old child was among the dead and that 18 people were wounded¹. The same child fatality and injury count were given by Khine Hein Htet, chairman of the Phyusin Yin Khwin Foundation, in the AFP account².

Shopkeeper Chit Su Wai, 27, told AFP her daughter, aunt and mother were killed and that residents did not hear a jet before bombs fell². Htet said many people had lived at the camp for four years, that they had believed it was safe, and that it was not a combat area². Tuk-tuk driver Aung Kyaw Min said relatives were killed and others, including a 10-year-old, were missing². Locals had wrapped bodies and buried them in makeshift graves among collapsed bamboo houses².

AFP said it was not possible to contact Myanmar's military for comment². Rakhine is largely held by the Arakan Army and has faced a military blockade and repeated airstrikes since the 2021 coup, the AFP report said². The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project estimates more than 100,000 people have been killed on all sides since the war began². Independent confirmation of the strike and the junta's account were not available^1,2.