At least 24 civilians were killed and 47 injured when Myanmar’s military launched a surprise aerial bombing on a peaceful gathering in central Myanmar, using motorised paragliders to drop explosives on the crowd. The assault, one of the deadliest in recent months, took place Monday evening in Chaung U township, during a holiday vigil that doubled as an anti-junta protest.

The attack targeted around 100 civilians who had gathered for a candlelight ceremony protesting military conscription, calling for the release of jailed democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, and rejecting the junta’s upcoming elections. Eyewitnesses described a sudden and devastating assault that lasted less than seven minutes.

“Children were completely torn apart,” said one local woman who helped organize the vigil. She added that rescue teams were still collecting body parts on Tuesday morning.

According to a member of the local People’s Defence Force (PDF), intelligence had indicated a potential airstrike, but the crowd could not be safely evacuated in time. The Sagaing region, a stronghold of resistance since the 2021 military coup, has frequently been the target of airstrikes and artillery shelling by the junta. However, the use of motorised paragliders marks a grim shift in tactics as the regime adapts to aircraft shortages brought on by international sanctions.

“This should serve as a gruesome wake-up call that civilians in Myanmar need urgent protection,” said Joe Freeman, Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher.

Amnesty condemned the bombing as part of a “disturbing trend” of increasingly indiscriminate attacks on civilians. The organization also warned of the junta’s growing reliance on advanced drones and battlefield technology sourced from China and Russia.

Monday’s event was meant to be a peaceful national holiday commemoration, highlighting opposition to the junta’s planned December elections, which critics have condemned as a sham. With opposition parties banned and voting restricted to military-controlled zones, the upcoming election is widely seen as an attempt to legitimize authoritarian rule.

The junta’s crackdown on dissent has intensified ahead of the vote, with regions like Sagaing, Chin, and Kayah experiencing heavy military pressure despite the dominance of resistance forces. The army has made limited territorial gains in recent months through air superiority and scorched-earth campaigns.

The airstrike has reignited calls for international action, with Amnesty International and other human rights groups urging ASEAN leaders, who are set to meet later this month, to abandon what they describe as a failed diplomatic approach to Myanmar’s crisis.

“ASEAN’s response has so far betrayed the Myanmar people,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Despite mounting civilian casualties and regional instability, ASEAN has struggled to enforce its Five-Point Consensus, a peace framework agreed upon with the junta in 2021. Analysts now warn that continued passivity risks legitimizing a regime that increasingly targets civilians with military-grade precision weapons.

The Chaung U massacre, as many are now calling it, adds to the growing toll of Myanmar’s post-coup violence, raising urgent questions about the global community’s ability—or willingness—to curb the junta’s impunity.