Myanmar

Map of Myanmar

What is Happening in Myanmar?

After taking steps toward democratization over the past decade, power in Myanmar has been decisively reconsolidated in the authoritarian hands of the country’s military. In February 2021, the newly elected, hugely popular government of Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown by the army, leading to pro-democracy protests that brought millions of people into the streets over several months. Escalating violence and repressive measures by the military, resulting in more than 1,300 deaths and thousands of arrests, have forced the resistance movement underground. This has provoked the formation of civilian self-defence militias whose presence further complicates the country’s volatile conflict dynamics. Prior to the coup, more than 20 ‘ethnic armed organizations’ were already in various kinds of armed struggle with the government and/or one another, namely in Shan, Kachin, Chin, and Rakhine states – the latter the epicentre of the military’s genocidal campaign against the mostly Muslim Rohingya community since 2017, for which no perpetrators have yet faced meaningful justice.

Communities at risk Kachin, Karenni, Karen, Mons, Rakhine, Rohingyas, Shan, Chin (Zomis), Wa

https://bhrn.org.uk/en/