Dozens of people were killed on Sunday, including at least six children, when a building exploded in the village of Kaungtup in northeastern Myanmar. International news agencies report this and the BBC partly based on witness statements. The cause of the explosion is not yet certain, but it is believed to be an accident.
The region in which Kaungtup is located is under the control of the armed resistance group Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and borders China. A TNLA spokesperson told the AFP news agency that the explosion was “unintentional.” According to the resistance group, the building that exploded contained explosives from their “economic department”, which were intended for use in mines and quarries.
Reports on the exact number of fatalities vary. An employee of the local emergency services told AFP that 46 were killed and 70 injured, while another emergency worker reported 59 deaths. Based on social media messages from local residents, the BBC writes about damage to hundreds of homes.
Exploitation of valuable minerals
Since the February 2021 coup, power in Myanmar has effectively rested with the military. This violent junta is supported by China and Russia, but controls no more than a quarter of Myanmar’s territory.
A much larger share is in the hands of resistance armies, of which TNLA is one of the largest. These types of groups often depend on the extraction of valuable minerals to finance their organization and armaments.
This situation, in which Myanmar citizens are at risk from both the repressive military authorities and armed resistance groups, is very worrying, according to the United Nations Human Rights Division and organizations such as Amnesty International. At the end of last year, the junta called elections for the first time. A UN Special Rapporteur however, called this far from legitimate and spoke of a “theatrical performance” with the aim of “deceiving the international community.”
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