The United Nations Human Rights Office has issued a stark report indicating that Myanmar’s armed forces were responsible for more than 700 civilian deaths during the six‑month election cycle spanning August to January. The final count is 702 deaths, with 224 women and 153 children among those who were killed.
This period covers the time since the military announced elections after its 2021 coup, a process widely criticized as a sham because major opposition parties were barred from participating and large swaths of the population were prevented from voting due to the ongoing civil war.
The report highlights that air‑strikes were the single largest contributor to destruction, especially in the Sagaing region. There, 191 civilians died, including 60 women and 30 children. An October attack on a crowd gathered outside a school in Chaung‑U killed 23 people, including four children, and wounded more than 60; a December bombing hit a tea shop in Tabayin, killing at least 19 and wounding 20.
The Human Rights Office also points to abuses of the Rohingya community, including forced recruitment by the Arakan Army, arbitrary arrests, and sexual violence.
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk emphasized that international aid withdrawals are deepening the suffering: “Funding for localised protection efforts was often the only relief from constant targeting and indiscriminate attacks by the military. This pullback just compounds that injury.”
Myanmar’s situation remains dire: the 2021 coup displaced thousands, killed many, and turned the nation into a battlefield where the military retains a disproportionate share of political power, with their own party securing nearly 80% of parliamentary seats in the sham election.
