Striking police officers in Kayah State have formed a police force which will work together with anti-regime groups to fight military rule. It is the first such shadow police force to be formed in Myanmar since the junta’s February 1 coup. The Karenni State Police (KSP) was formed on August 15 under the leadership of […]Read More

The Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM), which is controlled by the military regime, has sold nearly US$90 million (148 billion kyats) since the February coup as the kyat’s value tumbles. The CMB auctioned $6.8 million to domestic banks in February following the coup, $12 million in April, $24 million in May, $12 million in June […]Read More

The coup and the resulting political turmoil have caused Myanmar’s health care system to collapse and thrown the country’s COVID-19 response into chaos. Today, Myanmar is on the brink of a COVID-19 catastrophe due to a lack of leadership, vision and proper management. Many physicians and nurses have gone into hiding because of their conspicuous […]Read More

Over 5,000 residents from three villages in Shwebo Township, Sagaing Region, fled their homes after junta raids on Sunday. Shootouts occurred outside Pa Lai village on Sunday evening when resistance fighters used homemade rifles against large numbers of advancing junta troops. “They came with informants. At first, there was only a truck of them but […]Read More

It is sad, depressing and terrifying to see Myanmar facing a third wave of COVID-19. People are dying and crematoriums are overflowing in Yangon and elsewhere. It is a double blow to people in Myanmar, as they have been extraordinarily brave in resisting the attempted coup since February. This week, several charity groups said the […]Read More

Politicians from the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) who have stayed in touch with Chinese officials since the Feb. 1 coup say Beijing was convinced in advance of the Myanmar military’s intention to overthrow the country’s elected government. These NLD figures—who have remained largely aloof from the activities of the shadow National Unity Government […]Read More

On June 30, the military regime released over 2,000 people who had been detained over the past five months for their involvement in the anti-junta movement. Most of those freed were civilians detained in anti-regime protests, as well as 12 journalists. The Irrawaddy has interviewed some of the freed journalists about how they were arrested […]Read More

Myanmar’s military regime has locked down the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay, due to a spike in Coronavirus infections in the city of more than 1 million people. Residents of the city’s seven townships were ordered to stay at home starting from dawn on Friday, in an announcement made by the regime’s Health Ministry on Thursday, […]Read More

Generally speaking, if you are a state official, how you are treated by the host country during an overseas trip says a lot about who you are. The degree of fanfare with which you are met matters. Who is there to greet you on your arrival at the airport is an indication of how you […]Read More

Some two months after the military takeover in February, the junta-controlled Ministry of Information started publishing books that denounced the anti-regime movement and praised the junta’s State Administrative Council. Since the coup by late military dictator General Ne Win in 1962, all the information ministers, including the current minister U Chit Naing, have been ex-military […]Read More

Myanmar military regime leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing flew out of the country on Sunday to attend a conference in Moscow. This is his second trip abroad since grabbing power from Myanmar’s democratically elected government in February. The official reason for his visit is to attend the Moscow Conference on International Security scheduled for […]Read More

National League for Democracy (NLD) Central Executive Committee member U Aung Kyi Nyunt says the military regime’s plan to abolish the party is a plot to illegally win the next general election. “As they know, there is no way to compete against the most popular party so they are trying to eliminate the NLD before […]Read More

Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG) called on China to engage with them to find a solution to the country’s political crisis, while warning that any attempts to legitimise the military regime would risk undermining people to people relations between the two countries. In its open letter to China’s State Councilor and foreign minister Wang […]Read More

The Chin National Front (CNF), one of the ethnic armed organizations in Myanmar, has allied with the National Unity Government (NUG), becoming the first such group to side with the country’s shadow government formed to topple the military regime. According to the pact signed on Saturday, the two sides agree to cooperate based on equality, […]Read More

Following the military regime’s plan to dissolve the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Myanmar’s detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has said that the NLD will be there as long as the people are there because the party was founded for the people. Last Friday, the junta-appointed Union Election Commission chairman U Thein […]Read More

The military regime-appointed election body said on Friday that it would dissolve the National League for Democracy (NLD) for allegedly committing voter fraud, and take action against those who it says “rigged” the November vote, calling them “traitors”. The military justified its February coup by alleging massive voter fraud in November’s general election, which brought […]Read More

Rejecting the claims of mass fraud and voting irregularities used by the Myanmar military to justify its coup, an international monitoring group said in its final report on the results of last year’s polls that the vote reflected the true will of the electorate. The November 2020 general election brought another landslide victory for the […]Read More

Following the coup, Myanmar’s economy is facing significant risks of a collapse and the level of impoverishment has not been seen in the country since 2005, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently revealed in a report. Over the past 10 years, Myanmar’s average economic growth has exceeded 6 percent. However, the World Bank has […]Read More