Myanmar has seen over 100,000 conflict-related deaths since February 2021, when the military ousted the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The coup ended Myanmar’s decade-long experiment with democracy and sparked civil war as anti-putsch protests were suppressed by security forces.
According to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), there have been 100,114 conflict-related fatalities since the military takeover. There is no official death toll, but analysts consider this half-decade civil war Asia’s deadliest active conflict.
More than 3.7 million people are internally displaced in Myanmar, and over one in five faces acute food insecurity as the country slides back into poverty. The largest city, Yangon, experiences occasional assassinations, while other regions are plagued by entrenched warfare or daily airstrikes from military jets supplied by Russia and China.
Myanmar was the second-most conflict-hit area globally last year, according to ACLED, behind only the Palestinian territories. Over 1,200 distinct armed groups have been registered in the civil war, making it “the most fragmented conflict in the world.”
In February 2024, the military activated conscription legislation, aiming to bolster its ranks by forcibly recruiting 50,000 citizens. These conscripts are often sent to die on the front lines, according to a former deserter.
The conflict’s consequences extend abroad, with refugees filling camps in neighboring Thailand and Bangladesh. Armed groups on all sides profit from drug production, creating fertile ground for transnational criminal enterprise.