“Crashing Down on Us” 53 Airstrikes on Alen Bum and Surrounding Areas in Laiza, Waingmaw Township, Kachin State October 31, 2023, afternoon On October 31, 2023, a junta airstrike destroyed the Sinpraw Majoi cultural center atop Alen Bum in Laiza, Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, injuring children and adult civilians. Alen Bum is a hill in the southwest of Laiza. A 74-year-old Alen Bum resident told Fortify Rights: On the morning of October 31, [2023] we saw jets flying above us. … [W]e suspected an incoming airstrike, or that they [the junta] were about to do something dangerous to us. … It was difficult to find a place to hide out, since we lived on top of a hill. … I was at home when the attack happened. The bomb came right when we heard the jet sound. … There were at least three or four strikes. … The second strike injured me.103 She continued: The force of the strike was so strong that my front door flew open and was destroyed. I was walking towards the front [of the house], but the force knocked me back, and I fell down. … I don’t remember what happened next. It was so quick. When I tried to get up, I realized my right hand was broken, and two fingers on my left hand were broken. … I hurt my right hip when I fell. It was so painful that I thought my hip was broken.104 Children at the cultural center also sustained injuries due to the airstrike. The 74-year-old woman explained: Ten students [at the cultural center] were injured. Including me, it was 11 [people injured] in total. Some didn’t sustain serious injuries, so the hospital tended to them, and a teacher took them home. Around six of us remained at the hospital. I had to be hospitalized, and the doctors operated to fix my broken hands the next day. I have been in a cast until now. I can’t do or hold anything. Three students were also hospitalized. The force of the explosion hurt their chest area. They had to be given oxygen every day. … The students are 16, 17, and 20 years old.105 “We don’t have anything related to the [armed groups resisting the Myanmar junta] around us,” the elderly woman told Fortify Rights.106 A 29-year-old resident of Laiza described witnessing the military junta’s attack on Alen Bum on October 31, 2023, from his home nearby: In the afternoon of October 31, there was an attack near Laiza. There was no air-raid siren before this incident. Three jets dropped three bombs. I didn’t see the impact because I was inside, but I could hear it so clearly. I could feel the shock waves from the explosions. This was the first attack from the first jet. When the second jet came, I saw the jet, the explosion, and how the smoke rolled up afterward. The third time, I didn’t see the jet but only saw the impact and the smoke.107 Another Laiza resident, 44, also described the afternoon attack: “I just heard a loud sound, donn, and saw the grey clouds in the sky. I registered the plane sound only after and realized it was an airstrike.”108 He also said air-raid sirens on the Chinese side of the nearby border alerted him to the attack. Alarms also sounded when he spoke with Fortify Rights: 103 Fortify Rights interview with F.D., Laiza, Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, Myanmar, November 9, 2023. 104 Ibid. 105 Ibid. 106 Ibid. 107 Fortify Rights interview with D.A., Laiza, Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, Myanmar, November 1, 2023. 108 Fortify Rights communication with Z.H., Laiza, Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, Myanmar, October 31, 2023.