UN Investigation: Myanmar Military Using Paragliders and Drones to Kill Civilians

The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), established by the UN Human Rights Council, has released a report on August 12 revealing that Myanmar's military has increasingly used low-cost aircraft, including motorized paragliders, in escalating aerial attacks that have killed numerous civilians in the ongoing conflict with armed opposition groups. The Arakan Army, an ethnic armed organization in Rakhine State, reported that at least 20 civilians were killed and 22 others injured in Myanmar military airstrikes across three townships between August 1-11, with one attack involving up to eight aircraft lasting around one hour. The IIMM found serious human rights violations and a marked increase in aerial attacks in the months before elections in December and January, with attacks continuing unabated afterward. Investigators also documented arbitrary detention, torture, and deliberate sexual violence. Civilian casualties have increased due to the military's use of "double-tap" aerial strikes—a second attack following the initial strike—targeting rescue workers, emergency personnel assisting the injured, and fleeing civilians. Myanmar's military has increasingly deployed motorized paragliders, small helicopters, and drones to conduct low-level aerial attacks with unguided ordnance. In recent incidents in Sagaing Region in the northwest, paraglider pilots have used engine-cutoff tactics when approaching targets, allowing them to glide down silently and giving civilians little or no warning time to escape.