Yoma Bank bombing kills 2 women in Lashio

A major explosion at a Yoma Bank branch yesterday afternoon killed two women in the northeastern Myanmar city of Lashio – a mixed Burmese-Shan-Chinese city that lies on the edge of conflict zones and smuggling networks.

Sandar Tun, 48, and Maw Maw, 39, were both employees at the bank branch where they were killed. The blast, which the military has described as a bombing by a “terrorist group,” also injured 22 people – 13 other bank staff and nine others.

Photos of the aftermath of the bombing show heavy damage to the Yoma Bank building and to an AYA Bank building next door. The windows of a government building across the street from the two banks appear to have been blown out, and nearby cars were also damaged.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing. However, it came about a month after the Myanmar military distributed fliers around the city warning residents that the Kachin Independence Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army were planning to attack the city.

Both ethnic armed groups are members of the Northern Alliance, whose conflict with the military has intensified in recent months, displacing tens of thousands of civilians and trapping others in battle zones.

The bombing also comes as Myanmar’s civilian government, led by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, is trying to keep alive a faltering peace process. Earlier this month, two ethnic armed groups – the New Mon State Party and the Lahu Democratic Front – signed onto a national ceasefire deal with the government, though neither has been in active conflict with the Myanmar military.

The peace process has done nothing to quell the conflict with the Northern Alliance, which rejects the process altogether, nor to stem the torrent of accusations by rights groups and world leaders that the Myanmar military has committed ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Rohingya in Rakhine State.

According to a Facebook post, the military helped coordinate medical treatment for people injured in yesterday’s bombing.

An announcement circulating on social media indicates that a funeral will be held for Sandar Tun on Feb. 23.