In this image provided by The Myanmar Military True News Information Team, Myanmar’s military leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, center, speaks during meeting with members of the National Defense and Security Council Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar.
| Photo Credit: AP

Myanmar’s junta extended a state of emergency by six months on Friday (January 31, 2025), four years after it seized power triggering a civil war that has claimed thousands of lives.

The country is mired in a bloody, multi-sided conflict stemming from the February 1, 2021 putsch that ended a 10-year experiment with democracy.

The military is struggling to contain armed resistance to its rule, suffering a series of damaging battlefield losses over the past year to an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups in the north and west of the country.

The ruling military council headed by Army chief Min Aung Hlaing unanimously approved the extension, the junta’s information team said in a statement.

“All members of National Defence and Security Council including the commander in chief as well as acting president decided in unison for the extension of the state of emergency for another six months,” the statement said.

Elections cannot be held under a state of emergency, so long-promised polls the junta has said will be held in 2025 will not take place until the second half of the year at the earliest.

Min Aung Hlaing told the ruling council that “peace and stability is still needed” before the state of emergency can be lifted and polls held.

Critics and Western governments have said that any elections held under the auspices of the junta will be neither free nor fair.

The military seized power after making unsubstantiated allegations of fraud in 2020 elections which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide.

It has extended the state of emergency multiple times since as it battles established ethnic minority armed groups and newer pro-democracy “People’s Defence Forces”.

Thousands dead, millions displaced

More than 6,000 civilians have been killed since the coup, and more than 20,000 arrested, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group.

On Thursday the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) said serious international crimes had been committed in the four years since the coup.

The conflict has forced more than 3.5 million people to flee their homes, while an estimated 19.9 million people — or more than a third of Myanmar’s population — will need humanitarian aid in 2025, according to the UN.

Earlier this month, foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional bloc urged the junta to prioritise a ceasefire in the conflict over holding elections.

ASEAN has led international efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis but, despite multiple meetings and declarations, has made no substantial progress.

This video grab released by the Arakan Army shows burning buildings in the headquarters of the army’s western command in Ann township, Rakhine state, Myanmar, Dec. 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Southeast Asian Foreign Ministers gathered Sunday (January 19, 2025) for their first meeting this year under the regional bloc’s new chair, Malaysia, seeking a breakthrough over Myanmar’s drawn-out civil war and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

The retreat on the idyllic northern resort island of Langkawi was the first major meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations hosted by Malaysia. Officials said it aims to chart the bloc’s direction for the year as it tries to resolve Myanmar’s deadly four-year crisis and tensions over China’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said ASEAN must bolster unity and make economic integration a top priority amid global uncertainties and the U.S.-China rivalry in the region. He said the second term of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has also raised questions on how it will shape dynamics in the region.

“There is much to prepare for. Above all, what we need to anticipate are the potential challenges to ASEAN centrality,” he told the opening of the meeting. “We must ensure that ASEAN remains our central go-to platform for solution seeking… We are the speakers and not the spoken-for. We must drive our own path forward.”

The crisis in Myanmar has emerged as one of the bloc’s biggest challenges since a military coup ousted an elected civilian government in February 2021, plunging the country into conflict. It has sparked an armed resistance movement, with rebel forces now controlling large parts of the country. The war has killed tens of thousands of people, and displaced millions.

ASEAN’s peace plan and other efforts to seek a solution have been futile as Myanmar’s junta has not been compliant. ASEAN banned Myanmar’s military leaders from formal ASEAN meetings but the bloc’s non-interference policy has hampered its role. The military government plans an election this year to legitimize its rule but critics say polls are unlikely to be free or fair.

Malaysia, which brought Myanmar into ASEAN during its chairmanship of the bloc in 1997, is expected to take a more proactive stance as the Myanmar crisis has led to the flourishing of criminal activities, online scams and human trafficking along Myanmar’s border.

Hasan last month said Malaysia had appointed Othman Hashim, a former foreign ministry senior official, as its special envoy to Myanmar to engage various factions in the country to find a way forward.

Tensions in the South China Sea, one of the world’s vital shipping lanes, are also high on the agenda Sunday following violent confrontations in the waters last year. ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei along with Taiwan have overlapping claims with China, which asserts sovereignty over virtually all of the South China Sea.

Chinese and Philippine vessels clashed repeatedly last year. Chinese forces also assaulted Vietnamese fishermen and Chinese patrol vessels ventured into areas that Indonesia and Malaysia claim as exclusive economic zones.

The Philippines has pushed for negotiations between ASEAN and China for a code of conduct in the waterway but talks have stalled over disagreements including whether the pact should be binding and its scope of coverage. ASEAN has not openly criticized China, which is the bloc’s top trading partner.

As chair, Malaysia is likely to push for quiet diplomacy as it balances security challenges with economic gains, analysts say.

“It would be pragmatism on Malaysia’s side, as the country — as well as ASEAN as a whole — lack the diplomatic and military heft to confront China on the South China Sea,” said Muhamamd Faizal Abdul Rahman, a research fellow at Singapore’s S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Julie Bishop. File
| Photo Credit: Photo Credit: https://www.un.org

The United Nations (UN) special envoy for Myanmar warned that the Southeast Asian nation is in crisis, with conflict escalating, criminal networks “out of control” and human suffering at unprecedented levels.

Julie Bishop told the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee on Tuesday (October 29, 2024) in her first report since being appointed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last April that “Myanmar actors must move beyond the current zero-sum mentality.”

A collective effort towards peace in Myanmar

The Army in Myanmar ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule, leading to increasing violence and a humanitarian crisis.

In the past year, three powerful ethnic armed militias have gained territory, keeping the government’s ruling military increasingly on the back foot in fighting that has forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee their homes. According to the U.N., three million people are displaced across Myanmar and some 18.6 million need humanitarian assistance.

Ms. Bishop called for an end to the violence, stressing that “There can be little progress on addressing the needs of the people while armed conflict continues across the country.” The former Australian Foreign Minister said she has engaged with the government, including Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, as well as Opposition representatives, ethnic armed organisations, women’s groups, human rights defenders and numerous countries. She gave no details about the meetings.

She said she has engaged with the current, previous and incoming ASEAN chairs in Vientiane, Laos; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The U.N. envoy said she has also visited Myanmar’s neighbours China and Thailand and will soon visit India and Bangladesh, “continuing to urge neighbouring countries to leverage their influence.” She said she will also return to Naypyidaw but gave no time frame. She gave no details about any of the meetings.

At the recent summit between the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, Ms. Bishop said Secretary-General Guterres backed strengthened cooperation between the U.N. envoy and the ASEAN chair “on innovative ways to promote a Myanmar-led process.” This includes “effective implementation” of a five-point ASEAN plan Myanmar’s rulers agreed to in April 2021 but have done little to fulfill. It calls for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all concerned parties mediated by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid and a visit to Myanmar by the association’s special envoy to meet all concerned parties.

“Any pathway to reconciliation requires an end to violence, accountability and unfettered access for the U.N. and its partners to address vulnerabilities among the marginalised, including Rohingya, ethnic communities and particularly women and youth,” Ms. Bishop said.

But instead she pointed to rising civilian casualties and the rule of law “so severely undermined that transnational crime emanating from Myanmar is proliferating.”

“The sheer scale of arms productions and trade, human trafficking, drug manufacture and trafficking, and scam centers means Myanmar now ranks highest among all member states for organised crime,” she said. “The criminal networks are out of control.” Ms. Bishop backed Mr. Guterres who stressed the urgency of forging a path toward a democratic transition and return to civilian rule.

“I share his concern regarding the military’s stated intention to hold elections amid intensifying conflict and human rights violations,” she said.

Ms. Bishop warned that “the Myanmar conflict risks becoming a forgotten crisis. The regional implications of this crisis are evident, but the global impact can no longer be ignored,” she said.

This photo taken on May 21, 2024 shows people rebuilding temporary homes near a destroyed building following fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA) ethnic minority armed group in a village in Minbya Township in Rakhine State. Image used for representative purpose only.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Myanmar military airstrikes hit a hospital in a city controlled by an ethnic minority armed group close to the China border killing 10 persons, local media reported on Friday.

Military planes carried out at least two air strikes on Laukkai city, normally home to some 25,000 people, late on Thursday night, a local resident said.

Local media quoted one resident as saying 10 civilians were killed in the strike.

Myanmar’s northern Shan State has been rocked by fighting since late June when an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups renewed an offensive against the military along a major trade highway to China.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) group have held Laukkai since January after more than 2,000 junta troops surrendered there in one of the military’s biggest defeats in decades.

MNDAA spokesman Li Jiawen said a military airstrike had hit a hospital in Laukkai, but he had no information yet on casualties.

The junta has been approached for comment.

The junta has bombed Laukkai several times in recent weeks after the MNDAA renewed its offensive in northern Shan State, shredding a Beijing-brokered ceasefire.

Pictures taken on Thursday and shared with AFP by the Laukkai resident showed deserted streets.

In recent days MNDAA fighters have entered the town of Lashio, also in northern Shan state and home to the military’s northeastern command.

Fighting was ongoing in Lashio on Friday, a military source told AFP, requesting anonymity to talk to the media.

Local media, citing a local resident, reported that MNDAA fighters had entered a military hospital in Lashio and killed an unspecified number of patients and medical staff.

AFP was unable to reach people on the ground in Lashio or confirm the report.

Dozens of civilians have been killed or wounded in the recent fighting in Shan state according to the junta and local rescue groups.

Neither the junta nor the ethnic alliance have released figures on their own casualties.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to myriad ethnic armed groups who have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Some have given shelter and training to newer “People’s Defence Forces” (PDFs) that have sprung up to battle the military after the coup in 2021.

China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta, but analysts say it also maintains ties with armed ethnic groups in Myanmar that hold territory near its border.

Gutted buildings, vacant windows and blocks bombed to rubble show the price paid by the western Myanmar town of Pauktaw for victory against the junta in the country’s civil war.

Fighters from the Arakan Army (AA) ethnic minority armed group took control of the fishing port of 20,000 people in January, as the conflict sparked by the military’s coup entered its fourth year.

Pauktaw was one of a string of losses suffered by the junta across the country at the time, leading many to hope its decades-long stranglehold over Myanmar’s politics could be broken.

Four months later, the Arakan Army remains in control but Pauktaw is mostly empty of residents, who are living on the outskirts and fearful of a repeat of the junta’s heavy artillery attacks on the town.

“We are frightened of them (the military),” one man told AFP from his temporary home just outside Pauktaw, asking for anonymity for security reasons.

“We don’t know what will happen or what kind of weapon they will drop on us if we go and stay back at home in the town.

“We can’t detect their air strikes or bombs and we will be killed if they attack.”

Video taken by locals this month and obtained exclusively by AFP shows streets silent apart from birdsong and the sounds of AA soldiers sifting through piles of debris and sheets of corrugated iron.

Near a deserted market that once bustled with vendors buying and selling crabs and tiger shrimp, a ragged awning advertising a mobile phone carrier flutters above the doorway of a gutted shop.

Phone and internet services have been all but cut off.

No chance

The AA has fought an on-off war for years against the Myanmar military, seeking more autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine population.

As the army has faced growing resistance to its rule, from multiple armed groups — some new, some long-established — the AA has stepped up its campaign.

As the junta has lost territory on the ground, it is increasingly calling on its air power to support its ground troops.

Rights groups accuse the junta of using the strikes to punish communities suspected of opposing its rule.

When a military helicopter hovered over Pauktaw and began shooting into the town last November, many fled in panic.

“There was no chance for us to take a single thing from our house,” one woman now living outside the town told AFP.

“We had cooked a pot of rice and we were not able to eat it,” she said, also asking for anonymity.

“We had no money when we fled. We only had some gold jewellery with us. We tried to pawn that but it wasn’t easy. The interest was too high.”

The fate of Pauktaw’s residents reflects a nationwide tragedy. Across Myanmar, around 2.7 million have been forced to flee by the civil war.

Looting

The AA has not allowed residents to live back in Pauktaw, citing the danger of more air or artillery strikes on the town, although it does allow them to come and go to pick up items.

The man who spoke to AFP said he had returned to check on his house and found it partly in ruins, with the family statue of the Buddha fallen onto the floor.

His savings box — containing money for a Buddhist ritual for his children and for timber to repair a roof damaged by a cyclone last year — was gone, he said.

“I have lost all of that money,” he said.

“Everything in our house got stolen… my father’s fishing nets were stolen,” another woman said, also requesting anonymity.

“I am a tailor, and luckily, I managed to save my sewing machines.”

During the fighting, both sides looted houses and damaged buildings, according to local reports.

In March, the AA said it would “investigate” any reports of looting by its members during the fighting.

‘Decisive battle’

The AA’s offensive has seized swathes of territory in Rakhine state and along the border with India and Bangladesh.

It has said it will capture the state capital Sittwe, 25 kilometres from Pauktaw and the last major town in northern Rakhine in the military’s hands.

In April, the AA warned residents of the town, which is home to an India-backed deep sea port, to leave ahead of a “decisive” battle.

Sittwe residents contacted by AFP said the military was restricting travel out of the town by road and river and the prices of basic foods such as rice and eggs had doubled.

Those already displaced from Pauktaw fear further fighting nearby.

“I am sad that we have fled our own house and we can’t live in it,” one resident told AFP.

“I have pawned my necklace for 18 lakhs ($850) so we have money to live. I still hope I can claim it back.”

Others said they wanted payback.

“I haven’t joined the Arakan Army because I am worried about who will look after my child,” one woman said.

“If I wasn’t… I would join them and fight back. I will be satisfied only if I can take revenge.”

Military personnel.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Myanmar’s main pro-democracy resistance group said on April 4 its armed wing launched drone attacks on the airport and a military headquarters in the capital, Naypyitaw, but the country’s ruling military said it destroyed the drones as they attacked.

The opposition National Unity Government ‘s “Defence Ministry” said in a statement that special units of the People’s Defense Force used drones to attack the targets simultaneously. The group, known by the acronym NUG, calls itself the country’s legitimate government, while the People’s Defense Force is made up of many local resistance groups with a good deal of independence.

NUG said there were reports of casualties. The country’s military said it shot down seven drones and there were no reports of casualties.

Also Read | A closer look at Myanmar’s discontent 

It wasn’t possible to independently verify most details of the attack.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power from the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, triggering nationwide peaceful protests that were suppressed with deadly force by the security forces, leading to armed resistance that amounts to a civil war.

The airport compound, which includes both a military air base and a civilian airport, is about 25 kilometres (16 miles) southwest of the military headquarters that the resistance group said it attacked.

The resistance group that claimed responsibility for the attack, Kloud Team (Shar Htoo Waw ), specializes in drone warfare, which is frequently employed by People’s Defense Force units, which lack the army’s heavy firepower.

Also Read | The Myanmar conflict is a regional problem 

Kloud Team said it targeted the house of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the ruling military council, as well as the military headquarters and air base,

Despite its great advantage in armaments and manpower, the military has been unable to quell the resistance movement, and frequently carries out air strikes in disputed territory. Civilian targets are often hit, and about 2.4 million people have been displaced since the 2021 army takeover.

For the resistance forces, drones have become crucial weapons for fighting back. Initially, smaller drones with lighter payloads were used, but now the opposition groups are using more sophisticated systems to drop explosives on military targets. Resistance groups frequently post videos on social media of their drone attacks.

A video grab shows Kim Aris displaying an old photo of his mother and Myanmar’s ousted, detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
| Photo Credit: AP

The younger son of ousted Myanmar leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi has said he’s increasingly worried about his imprisoned 78-year-old mother’s health and about Myanmar’s violent political crisis, which he calls “desperate.”

“I’d just really like to have some form of contact with her so that I know that she’ OK, because at the moment she has no access to her legal counsel,” Kim Aris said on September 13 in a video interview with The Associated Press from his home in London.

Explained | The legal battles of Aung San Suu Kyi since the 2021 coup in Myanmar

“She has no access to her personal doctors. She’s not allowed any visitors, as far as I’m aware. She’s not even allowed to mingle with the other prisoners, which means she’s basically under a form of solitary confinement.” Ms. Suu Kyi was arrested in 2021 when the Army seized power from her democratically elected government. She has since been prosecuted and convicted on more than a dozen charges for offenses her supporters say were concocted to keep her out of politics. She is serving a prison term of 27 years.

The military takeover triggered massive public resistance that was brutally suppressed, triggering a bloody civil war that has killed thousands of people.

Mr. Aris, 46, said he has tried to keep out of the spotlight for decades, seeking to avoid any political activism and “just trying to keep my head down and get on with my family life.” “I’ve always tried to avoid speaking to the media and (have been) avoiding social media all my life. But the situation in Burma at the moment is absolutely desperate,” he said, referring to Myanmar by its former name. “The fact that I’ve not been allowed to communicate with my mother at all for over two and a half years now” is another reason he is speaking out,” he said.

“So now I’m doing all I can to try and help the situation and bring awareness of this situation to the wider world,” he said. He is getting active on social media and said he plans a campaign to “bring awareness and funding for humanitarian purposes” Mr. Aris said he has heard that his mother has been extremely ill and has been suffering from gum problems and was unable to eat. “She was suffering from bouts of dizziness and vomiting and couldn’t walk at one stage.” Mr. Aris said his information comes from independent Myanmar media and social media.

“Britain’s Foreign Office and the International Red Cross have tried and failed to learn more on his behalf,” he said. He has tried reaching out to Myanmar’s military government, including its embassy in London, “but I don’t get any response from them. They wouldn’t even answer the door to me.” It’s not the first time Suu Kyi has faced confinement. She spent nearly 15 years under house arrest under a previous military government starting in 1989, a year after co-founding her National League for Democracy party. But almost all of that time was at her family home in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, and she was not completely isolated.

“At that time, it was in her own home, and she was allowed visitors. At times, I was allowed to spend time with her under house arrest. And we were allowed to send her care packages and letters and have communication with her. Now, for the last two and a half years, we have had none of those basic human rights.”

“I realise that there are so many natural disasters and humanitarian crisis all over the world now and it’s hard for everybody to be exposed to that every day. We all need to try and do our bit to try and help everywhere that we can. And Burma is one country where we can change things very easily,” Mr. Aris said.

“If only 2% of what has been given to the Ukrainian forces had been given to the resistance forces in Burma, the situation would be very different now,” he said. “So I hope that people around the world can rally and try and help the people in Burma so that we can end this needless bloodshed.”