The Burmese army has allegedly attacked a village where children were at home, killing at least 40 civilians on Wednesday, January 8.

Dramatic footage shows terrified locals watching helplessly as homes burn in Kyauk Ni Maw village, located on Ramree Island in western Rakhine state, Myanmar. Several neighbours are seen attempting to put out the flames.

Reports indicate that Myanmar's army conducted an airstrike on the village, which is under the control of the Arakan Army, an armed ethnic group.

The strike killed dozens and left at least 20 others injured.

Myanmar has been experiencing escalating violence since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected government in February 2021.

Following the violent suppression of peaceful protests by the army, many opponents of military rule took up arms, leading to widespread conflict across the nation.

Duplicitous neighbors such as Thailand and China have been found to have financed the slaughter the of civilians.

Over the past three years, the military government has intensified airstrikes against both pro-democracy armed groups, known as the People's Defense Force, and armed ethnic groups that have been fighting for greater autonomy.

These groups sometimes carry out joint operations against the army.

The Arakan Army, a well-trained and well-equipped military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, is advocating for autonomy from Myanmar's central government. The group is also part of a coalition of armed ethnic factions that recently gained key territories in the country's northeast, bordering China.

The group launched its offensive in Rakhine in November 2023. It has since captured a regional army headquarters and 14 out of the 17 townships in the region. Only Sittwe, the state's capital, and two important townships near Ramree remain under military government control.

Rakhine, formerly known as Arakan, was the site of a brutal counterinsurgency operation by the army in 2017, which forced approximately 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee across the border into Bangladesh.