Myanmar’s military was responsible for over 700 civilian deaths during a six-month period covering the last election, the UN said, warning that civilians continued to bear the brunt of the country’s worsening conflict.
At least 702 civilians were killed between August 2025, when the junta announced the first national election since the 2021 coup, and the end of the voting period in January 2026, a report published by the UN Human Rights Office on Monday said. Among the victims were 224 women and 153 children.
The actual toll was likely higher, the agency said, noting that internet blackouts, restrictions on movement and funding shortages hampered its efforts to document abuses across the country.
Air strikes emerged as the deadliest form of violence during the period, according to the report. At least 505 civilians were killed in attacks involving fighter jets, drones, paramotors, and gyrocopters, including 175 women and 112 children.
The deaths surged during two key periods – immediately after the election announcement in August and September and again in December – as the military sought to consolidate territorial control amid ongoing fighting with resistance groups.
Central Myanmar and Rakhine state accounted for the vast majority of the deaths, with 573. Sagaing was the most dangerous area for civilians, seeing 191 deaths, about 70 per cent of which were caused by air strikes.
Among the incidents highlighted in the report was an attack in October in Chaung-U township, Sagaing, where 23 civilians were killed and over 60 injured after munitions struck a gathering near a school.
“At the time of the attack, participants were holding a candlelit event to celebrate the end of Buddhist Lent, and to call for the release of political prisoners, oppose military conscription, and reject military elections,” the report said.
In another attack, a military aircraft bombed a tea shop in the township of Tabayin on 5 December while a group of local people was watching a football match, killing at least 19 of them and wounding 20.
The report warned that shrinking international assistance was deepening the suffering of millions of people affected by conflict and displacement. Funding reductions had forced aid groups to scale back operations, cut support services and close programmes for vulnerable communities.
Emergency healthcare provision had deteriorated because of military blockades and financial constraints, the report said, while shelters for survivors of sexual violence had either closed or significantly reduced their services.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the international community was turning away from a crisis that continued to devastate lives.
“As if the people of Myanmar have not suffered enough at the hands of the military, they have now seemingly been forgotten by those outside the country,” he said, according to the BBC. “Funding for localised protection efforts was in many areas the only solace from the suffering caused by constant targeting and indiscriminate attacks by the military. This pullback just compounds that injury.”
The report raised concerns about the plight of the Rohingya Muslim minority, saying they remained vulnerable to forced recruitment by the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group, as well as to arbitrary detention, killing, and sexual violence.
Mr Türk called for a halt to attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, places of worship, and displacement camps, and urged all parties to enable unrestricted humanitarian access to those in need.
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