“Crashing Down on Us” 37 Both Kachin and Karenni states faced an average of 13 airstrikes per month in the period covered by this report.11 The two states—Kachin in the north and Karenni in the east—have been some of the more heavily impacted by junta air raids and artillery attacks, and are the primary focus of this report. Kachin State is home to one of Myanmar’s largest and most established ethnic resistance armies at war with the junta, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). The KIA is the military wing of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which was established in October 1960.12 Kachin State has been marred by protracted conflict and human rights violations for decades, largely relating to the control the state’s natural resources, including the lucrative gem, timber, and rare earth industries. In 2014, for example, Fortify Rights documented widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment of Kachin civilians by members of the Myanmar military and police forces, in what amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.13 In 2018, a U.N. Fact-Finding Mission published a 441-page report detailing, in part, war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Myanmar military and police in Kachin State.14 The city of Laiza, located near the border with China, serves as the headquarters and administrative capital of the KIO and KIA. The KIO relocated its headquarters to Laiza in 2005, transforming it from a small village into a key stronghold of Kachin governance. The town includes various KIO government departments, overseeing immigration, municipal services, and law enforcement, standing as a symbol of Kachin resistance and self-governance.15 The town is home to tens of thousands of civilians, including more than 15,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have fled conflict in other parts of Kachin State.16 Due to its strategic importance, Laiza and the surrounding area in eastern Kachin State have been frequent targets of artillery and airstrikes by the Myanmar military junta, many of which are included in this report. Karenni State (also known as Kayah State) borders Thailand to the east, and Shan State to the north. It borders Karen State (also known as Kayin State) to the south and west. Armed opposition to the military junta in Karenni State restarted in May 2021 as a direct response to the junta’s deadly attack on the peaceful protesters and civilian population. At that time, ethnic armed groups, including the Karenni National Defence Forces, began fighting the Myanmar military junta and later formed a Karenni-led civilian governing body, the Interim Executive Council, in June 2023. Since the start of the coup, the Myanmar military junta has been unable to maintain control over several townships in Karenni State and, in response, appears to have chosen to bombard these townships. In November 2021, Fortify Rights released a report examining the junta’s denial of humanitarian aid to civilians in Karenni State. Instead of protecting aid workers and facilitating humanitarian access, as required by international humanitarian law, the military junta arbitrarily detained aid workers, 11 Ibid. 12 The Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) founded the Kachin Independence Council (KIC), on January 15, 1961 as its governing and administrative body. The KIC formally founded the Kachin Independence Army on February 5, 1961 in Lashio, northern Shan State before expanding its operations into Kachin State. The KIO functions as a political entity, with the KIC responsible for formulating the organization’s policies. Under the KIO, the KIC holds decisionmaking authority over governance-related matters within KIO-controlled areas. See, Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar, “KIO/KIA,” website, https://ispmyanmarpeacedesk.com/eao/kachin-independence-organization/. 13 Fortify Rights, “I Thought They Would Kill Me”: Ending Wartime Torture in Northern Myanmar, June 2014, https://www. fortifyrights.org/mya-inv-rep-2014-06-09/. Furthermore, in 2018, Fortify Rights documented Myanmar authorities’ weaponization of humanitarian aid to displaced people in Kachin State. See, Fortify Rights, “They Block Everything”: Avoidable Deprivations in Humanitarian Aid to Ethnic Civilians Displaced by War in Kachin State, Myanmar, August 2018, https://www.fortifyrights.org/mya-inv-rep-2018-08-30/. 14 Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, Report of the Detailed Findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, A/HRC/39/CRP.2, September 17, 2018, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/ default/files/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_CRP.2.pdf. 15 Steve Tickner, “Life on the Laiza Front,” Frontier Myanmar, March 8, 2017, https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/lifeon-the-laiza-front/. 16 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Myanmar: IDP Sites in Kachin State (As of 31 March 2025), June 11, 2025, https://www.unocha.org/publications/map/myanmar/myanmar-idp-sites-kachin-state31-march-2025.