Ethnic Karen Rebels Complete Capture of Strategic Myanmar Border Crossing

Ethnic Karen Rebels Complete Capture of Strategic Myanmar Border Crossing

Ethnic Karen rebels and their allies claim to have captured an important trade hub on the Thai border in southeastern Myanmar, despite a last-ditch effort by the Myanmar military to prevent the town’s fall. In a statement today, the Karen National Union (KNU) announced that its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), and … Read more

Thailand Confirms Myanmar Military Evacuation Flight Request After Latest Resistance Gains

Indonesia Rescues 20 from Traffickers in Myanmar

Thailand yesterday confirmed that it had granted permission for Myanmar’s military junta to land three flights in the border town of Mae Sot to evacuate military personnel and civil servants fleeing resistance attacks in Karen State. In a statement released yesterday, the Ministry said that it had received a request from the Myanmar embassy  “to … Read more

Myanmar Rebels on Verge of Seizing Key Border Town, Report Claims

Myanmar Rebels on Verge of Seizing Key Border Town, Report Claims

Ethnic Karen rebels in eastern Myanmar claim to have seized control of part of the town of Myawaddy on the country’s border with Thailand, inflicting another serious debacle on the military junta. On Friday, according to a BBC report, the Karen National Union (KNU) announced that it had accepted the surrender of a battalion based … Read more

Myanmar Resistance Forces Launch Drone Attack on Capital

Myanmar Resistance Forces Launch Drone Attack on Capital

Resistance forces in Myanmar have launched audacious drone attacks on the capital Naypyidaw, the nerve-center of the military junta, though opposition and military sources offered differing accounts of the attack. Reuters cited a report from the military-run Myawaddy TV station claiming that an attempt by “terrorists” to destroy “important locations” in Naypyidaw had been foiled. … Read more

Myanmar’s Intensifying Conflict Taking Massive Rights Toll: UN

Myanmar’s NUG Condemns Military Conscription Drive, Vows to Resist

Myanmar’s escalating conflict and the worst violence since the military takeover in 2021 are having a devastating impact on human rights, fundamental freedoms and basic needs of millions of people – as well as “alarming spillover effects” in the region, U.N. officials said Thursday. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Khaled Khiari told the U.N. Security … Read more

Thailand Sends First Aid Shipment to Myanmar Along Controversial Humanitarian Corridor

Thailand Sends First Aid Shipment to Myanmar Along Controversial Humanitarian Corridor

Thailand has dispatched its first batch of aid along a humanitarian corridor to Myanmar that was recently established to assist civilian populations affected by the country’s metastasizing civil war. According to The Associated Press, Thailand yesterday sent 10 trucks over the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border crossing, carrying around 4,000 packages of aid to three towns in … Read more

Myanmar Junta Begins Summoning Civilians for Military Service

Myanmar Junta Chief Calls on Resistance Groups to Solve Problems ‘Politically’

Myanmar’s military junta is moving to enlist its first batch of civilians into the armed forces, amid reports that its recently announced conscription drive has driven thousands into hiding or into the ranks of the resistance. In a report published on Friday, Channel News Asia noted that summons letters have now been sent to “eligible … Read more

Myanmar and the Voices of a Revolution

Myanmar and the Voices of a Revolution

The town of Mae Sot in northwest Thailand is bustling. A frontier town with a civil war on its doorstep, the population has swelled with Burmese and ethnic rebels who spend most of their time across the border battling it out against the military junta. Bamar, Karen, Karenni, and Mon – both Buddhists and Christians … Read more

Last Flights Out of Sittwe

Last Flights Out of Sittwe

Abaung Sein* took brief pauses to chew betel as she recollected her family’s flight out of Sittwe, the regional capital of strife-torn Rakhine State in western Myanmar. The elderly Rakhine/Arakanese was enjoying her guilty pleasure as her family settled into a friend’s crowded Yangon flat. “We were lucky that we bought the tickets when we … Read more

Kachin Armed Resistance Group Claims Gains in Northern Offensive

Kachin Armed Resistance Group Claims Gains in Northern Offensive

An ethnic Kachin group in northern Myanmar has seized more than 20 military outposts and bases since it and its allies launched a coordinated attack on military targets last week, the group’s spokesperson claimed yesterday. On March 7, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and its allies launched simultaneous attacks on military outposts and bases along … Read more