Myanmar civil war (2021–present)

[58] The SAC has used terror tactics against the population, including burnings, beheadings, mutilations, war rape, torching villages, and a massive aerial bombing campaign that has displaced nearly 3 million people.

[24] In late June 2024 the Three Brotherhood Alliance restarted Operation 1027 after claiming that Tatmadaw forces had broken the ceasefire, capturing the tenth district level town, Kyaukme, by the end of the month.

[26] On 3 August, the MNDAA as part of a wider effort from the Three Brotherhood Alliance and other resistance groups captured Lashio, the largest town in northern Shan State, as well as the headquarters of the SAC's Northeastern Command.

[66] The 8888 Uprising, in response to the one party dominated rule of Ne Win, resulted in some of the first modern Bamar militias forming from protestors heading to areas under ethnic rebel control.

Former president Win Myint, state chancellor Aung San Suu Kyi, and several other members of the National League for Democracy were detained during the early morning of February 1st.

[17] By late March 2021, dozens of protesters had travelled to Myanmar's border areas to enlist in and train under one of the country's many insurgent groups,[82] elevating the risk of a countrywide civil war.

As part of the announcement he said that ousted leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint would retain their positions and asked the international community to recognize their government over the SAC.

[123] According to analyst Matthew Arnold, the civil war's momentum passed critical threshold by the end of the 2022 dry season where the revolutionary sentiment had grown into a broader social and armed resistance that the SAC could no longer suppress.

[127] On 14 December, around 200 Tatmadaw troops searched the Karen National Union (KNU)-controlled town of Lay Kay Kaw Myothit near the Thai border, arresting people suspected to be activists or members of the PDF.

[153] On 14 January 2022, units of the CNA moved into Senam village, south of Tamu, in neighboring Sagaing Region to attack a base run by the Indian-based People's Liberation Army of Manipur.

[166] On 23 July 2022, the State Administration Council announced that it had executed four political prisoners, including Zayar Thaw and Kyaw Min Yu, which was the first use of capital punishment in Myanmar since the late 1980s.

[183][184] In October 2022, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen made a statement that border bombings by Myanmar stopped after he met with the Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh, Li Jiming.

[234] Urban Owls also claimed that Ye Khaing was a confidante of Steven Law, the owner of Asia World Company, which operates the airport, and is a major supporter of the regime together with the second-in-command, Senior General Soe Win.

[241] On 15 September 2023, members of the Northern Thandaung Defence Force, along with the Lethal Prop drone unit, attacked the Aye Lar military base near the Nay Pyi Taw International Airport with 2 makeshift bombs.

[265][266][267] They also took Panlong base in Kunlong Township, killing Brigadier General Aung Kyaw Lwin in the battle,[268] and the strategic Goktwin bridge near the Goteik viaduct on the main Mandalay-China highway.

[312] Following the fall of Laukkai and the junta facing serious threats by the Three Brotherhood Alliance, the war has turned into a more multipolar landscape with borderlands being seized by powerful anti-junta groups with significant implications for the foreign relations of Myanmar.

[316] On 3 February 2024, as the clashes between Arakan Army and Tatmadaw increased in Rakhine, mortar shells and several bullets reportedly landed in Bangladesh territory, which injured some local residents near Ukhia, Cox's Bazar.

[22] After a prolonged siege and several days of negotiations, on 5 April over 600 junta soldiers and their families in Myawaddy surrendered to the KNU and withdrew across the border to Mae Sot,[394] leaving only the 275th Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) near the western entrance to defend the town.

[430] Although 1027 began in Shan State, widespread escalation dramatically shifted the balance of power, leading to EAOs in other areas making dominant gains and crippling the military junta with personnel attritions and historic levels of defections.

[513] China's support temporarily slowed the rebels' momentum but failed to reverse the trend of humiliating losses, including the fall of a second Regional Military Command in Ann, Rakhine State.

[514] In late August, the Tatmadaw began preparing an offensive to recapture key towns in northern Shan State, terming it as “Operation Hsin Phyu Shin” (after the Burmese king Hsinbyushin).

[515] Throughout September and October, the Tatmadaw began massing forces in the final towns it controlled in Northern Shan State (Namlan, Mongyai, and Tangyan) in preparation for the counteroffensive to retake Lashio.

The Burmese military has escalated its use of war crimes, including murder, mass killings, sexual violence, torture, arbitrary detention, attacks on religious buildings, and the targeting of civilians.

[597] The legal procedure is "a strong warning to Myanmar’s abusive military leaders that they’re not beyond the reach of the law,” said the Human Rights Watch senior international justice counsel Maria Elena Vignoli.

[625] A February 2022 report by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews stated that China, Russia, India, Belarus, Ukraine, Israel, Serbia, Pakistan and South Korea were selling weapons to the Tatmadaw.

[628] On 31 January 2023 the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a directive enabling organisations and citizens deemed "loyal to the state," including civilians, civil servants, and army personnel, to obtain firearms licenses.

[629] The regulatory shift has enabled the SAC to arm pro-military Pyusawhti militias and to suppress pro-democracy forces in light of waning military recruitment and their challenges with concurrently operating in multiple war theatres throughout the country.

[632] SAC-aligned Pyusawhti militias have reportedly used force to recruit local men, but have been less than effective in building up grassroots enforcement on behalf of the junta, and have "taken root only in the small number of communities where the military's own party is traditionally strong.

[640] Activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi thought the military's historic "indoctrination techniques are deeply rooted in nationalism and religious ideologies" leaving "soldiers and their families feeling disoriented amidst shifting societal paradigms".

[670][671] However, the fact that the Three Brotherhood Alliance's Operation 1027 in late 2023 was carried out near the China–Myanmar border may indicate a shift in China's stance,[672] which was attributed by analysts to concerns about cyber-scam centers, the pursuit of favorable concessions from the junta on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, and the opportunity to influence the PDF in light of evolving dynamics between NUG and EAO groups.

Thousands of protesters participating in an anti- junta rally in Yangon , February 2021
The Karen National Liberation Army attacked the SAC base on June 14, 2021.
Moe Bye Reservoir
Karenni Nationalities Defence Force soldiers, September 2022
The Bangladesh-Myanmar border
A street in Kawkareik
View of the Kalay-Falam Road
A rural area near Mawlaik , Sagaing Region
Fields in Maungdaw Township , northern Rakhine State
Burning Car in Lashio , April 2023
Captured Tatmadaw equipment in Kawlin , November 2023
Map of anti-junta gains from Phase 1 of Operation 1027 as of 19 March 2024
TNLA captured the Shan State towns of Namhkam
Paletwa seen from the Kaladan River , 2015
Two ATR-42 of the Myanmar Air Force at Mawlamyine Airport
Tatmadaw convoy near Pyin Oo Lwin , October 2023
Kennedy Peak , Chin State
Map of gains made by the Arakan Army since 2023
Mrauk U ancient temples in 2017
Southern Shan state mountains near Hopong
Local People's Defense Forces guard an anti-SAC Junta Protest in Kani Township
Journalist in front of a destroyed building, Karen State
Mosque in Buthidaung , 2015
Smoke rising from Myawaddy , April 2024
Civilians fleeing to Thailand during the siege of Myawaddy , 2024
Thai-Myanmar friendship bridge from Mae Sot, Thailand
Myanmar Air Force bombs a church in Kayah State , May 2024
Map of anti-junta gains made during Operation 1027 as of September 2024
Ngapali Beach, just outside Thandwe
Matupi town, captured by Operation Chin Brotherhood on 29 June 2024
Map showing the Battle of Lashio during July–August 2024
Smoke rising from Lashio after the bombing, July 2024
Mogok, Mandalay Region
Street in Nawnghkio
PDF forces in Magway Region , August 2024
Pang War, Myanmar on a snowy day
On 20 December 2024, the Arakan Army (AA) claimed to have captured the Myanmar military's Western Command headquarters in Ann, Rakhine State.
A hospital in Shan State was bombed by Myanmar Air Force , May 2024
NUG's UN Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun talks in an interview in 2022.
Myanmar absent at the US-ASEAN Summit 2022 in Washington, D.C.
In 2023, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Myanmar's Foreign Minister Than Swe jointly meet the press after the eighth LMC Foreign Ministers' Meeting.
Min Aung Hlaing meets Head Rais Rustam Minnikhanov of Tatarstan in Russia, June 2021.