A faint buzzing noise high in the sky was the first hint of danger. The source was a single-person flying machine, a motorized paraglider, that was barely visible. It cut its engine and floated quietly toward the ground.

As it reached an altitude of a few thousand feet, the pilot tossed bombs overboard that exploded with devastating effect among civilians on the ground.

Such aerial attacks — in which light, recreational aircraft, or paramotors, have been turned into deadly weapons — are carried out by the military almost daily now in central Myanmar, giving it an edge in its campaign to crush pro-democracy forces.

“In other countries, people feel happy and excited when they see a paramotor or paraglider,” said Moe Gyi, 27, a guerrilla in the Sagaing Region who has fought the junta since 2022. “But in our country, they have become weapons used to kill people. Here, when we see one, we have to run for our lives.”

Myanmar’s generals seized power from a democratically elected government in 2021 and brutally suppressed peaceful demonstrations. Many protesters fled to the countryside where they formed rebel groups, allying themselves with armed ethnic groups that have been battling the military for decades.

The ensuing civil war has killed more than 100,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, and driven 3.7 million from their homes. The United Nations estimates that more than 12 million will face acute food shortages this year.

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