At least 100,000 people, including civilians, have been killed in Myanmar's conflicts since the military coup of 1 February 2021, according to the UN. Kelley Anne Eckels-Currie, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, gave the figure to the UN General Assembly in New York on 27 October 2026. She called President Min Aung Hlaing a tyrant who still deliberately attacks civilians to force them into submission.
The military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi after alleging fraud in the 2020 election, which her National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide. Min Aung Hlaing later became president through a contested, military-run process in parliament. Eckels-Currie said that although he changed out of his uniform in April 2026, he remains the same ruthless dictator.
Since the coup, the country has been in a civil-war-like situation, with armed resistance groups confronting government forces. Airstrikes on crowded areas have become routine. According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), more than four million people in this Buddhist-majority nation of 55 million were internally displaced as of September, many sheltering for months in abandoned areas with no basic amenities. Others have fled to Thailand, India and Bangladesh. The UN estimates that over 16 million people now need humanitarian assistance.
The junta has arrested thousands of anti-junta activists, including politicians and journalists. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says over 32,000 people have been detained since the takeover. At least 15,000, including Suu Kyi, remain behind bars, along with around 20 media workers. Young people are also being pulled into the war. The Institute for Strategy and Policy says conscription under the military's service law, introduced in February 2024, had drawn in more than 136,300 people by October 2026.
Ethnic armed organisations and the People's Defence Forces, aligned with the exiled National Unity Government, now control about 42 percent of the country's territory. The military (Tatmadaw) holds only about 22 percent, including the capital Naypyidaw and some major cities. Fighting continues across Sagaing and Magway regions and in Kachin, Shan, Karenni (Kayah) and Karen (Kayin) States.
In the west, the Arakan Army (AA) has taken 14 of Rakhine State's 17 townships, as well as Paletwa township in neighbouring Chin State, which borders India and Bangladesh. Clashes are reported near Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, and around Kyaukphyu and Manaung Island. The partly AA-held Kyauktaw area is under heavy bombing. An airstrike on 28 September reportedly killed 50 civilians and injured 60. The AA said the attacks showed a military resorting to desperate tactics as it loses ground.
Myanmar's UN ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun, was appointed before the coup, and the junta-backed regime has recently announced his removal. He has urged the international community to block all aid to the regime and to stop supplying weapons and jet fuel, which he says are used in airstrikes on civilians.
Progressive Voice, a rights advocacy group, criticised the United States on 23 October for re-engaging with the regime. Its chairperson, Khin Ohmar, called the Naypyidaw government illegal and said Washington "appears willing to sideline human rights and democracy" in favour of what it sees as core national interests. She urged the US to recommit to Myanmar's democracy movement and cut all engagement with the junta.
An NLD supporter in Yangon told this writer that the authorities continue to harass ordinary citizens. He also condemned arms supplies to the regime by China and Russia, and said ASEAN, which initially shunned the junta after the coup, has lately warmed to it.
The figures point to a military that is losing territory and relying on air power and forced recruitment, while its opponents hold more land but remain fragmented. Meanwhile, the diplomatic isolation the junta once faced appears to be eroding, with Washington and ASEAN both reported to be re-engaging.
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*Senior journalist based in Guwahati
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