News Monitor #8
FEBRUARY 2026

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NEWS ROUNDUP

• February 1 marked five years since the military coup; violence continued in all fourteen regions across the country. UN reports established that 2025 was the worst year for civilian casualties since the coup.  

• The junta continued to target civilian infrastructure, clinics, markets, and trading posts, attacks which mounted hundreds of casualties. It continued to struggle against resistance advances, but also regained territories in some regions.

• Following the December-January elections widely seen as a sham, the junta proceeded with forming the new government led by its Union Solidarity and Development Party, which took 72 percent of seats.

• PAEMA released a statement on February 1, looking back at five years since the coup, and outlining why treating the junta as a legitimate governing authority entrenches instability rather than resolving it and why accountability remains essential to any path forward.

HUMAN RIGHTS & SECURITY

• UN Human Rights (OHCHR) released the Update on the Human Rights Situation in Myanmar in 2025, finding that 2025 was the deadliest year for children since Myanmar’s 2021 military coup. The report also found that more civilians died from airstrikes than any other year, reflecting the junta’s turn to aerial attacks as it loses ground control.

• 235 civil society groups signed a letter to the UN Human Rights Council calling for the adoption of a resolution rejecting the recent election, responding to the escalating human rights abuses and violence, and addressing transnational organized crime networks that help finance the junta.

ARMED CONFLICT

• Chin State: The junta’s Minister for Border and Ethnic Affairs narrowly escaped a suicide drone attack on Chin National Day. The Institute for Chin Affairs reported that nearly 1,200 Chin people have been killed since the 2021 coup.

• Mon State: Civilians endured junta abuses, with a disabled man shot dead and civilians arbitrarily detained.

• Kachin State: An investigation found that the junta used civilian aircraft to move weaponry to Kachin, possibly in violation of international law. Aerial attacks escalated across the state.

• Kayin/Karen State: Scam warlords sent thousands of fighters to aid the junta’s siege efforts. Over 4,000 newly displaced people faced food shortages in Thai border areas. A junta drone strike on a resistance vehicle killed five.

• Kayah/Karenni State: Junta forces amassed in Mawchi, Hpasawng Township, in preparation for an anticipated push to retake tin and tungsten mines that provide an important revenue source for Karenni resistance forces. The junta claimed a major victory in retaking Hpasawng after an eight-month struggle.

• Rakhine State: Junta airstrikes continued across the region, killing 42 people during the month. One attack targeted a busy village market in rural Pannagyun Township and killed at least 17 people, including children, and injured dozens. As AA-junta clashes intensified in Kyaukphyu Township, China dismantled and began moving the VPower plant.

• Shan State: More than 1,000 civilians were displaced due to clashes between junta and Pa-Oh forces. Civilians were also caught in battles involving multiple armed actors, affected by landmines, raised concerns about forced recruitment, opposed land confiscation, and were detained for protesting illicit mining.

• Ayarwaddy Division: Heavy fighting broke out in Yekyi Township between the junta and a coalition of forces under Arakan Army (AA) direction.

• Bago Division: Junta drone strikes killed six resistance fighters in Nattalin Township as junta forces pushed further into resistance-held territory. Numerous significant clashes erupted across the region during the first half of February.

• Magway Division: Unrest persisted as Myanmar military airstrikes on a trading site killed more than two dozen, a junta equipment factory was bombed, and junta soldiers were killed in a mine attack.

• Mandalay Division: According to inside sources, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing narrowly escaped a rocket attack by resistance forces. The opposition faced another setback as junta forces advanced to retake one of the last towns in the region still held by resistance forces following an earlier ceasefire.

• Sagaing Division: Airstrikes inflicted heavy civilian casualties on February 23. Earlier in the month, junta forces sustained heavy losses as four bases fell but also retook a gold mining town. Resistance infighting resulted in one death. Resistance leader Bo Nagar defected to the junta.

• Tanintharyi Division: The junta launched airstrikes near the Dawei Special Economic Zone; fishermen, traders, and others complained of an economic standstill amid fighting preventing movement.

HUMANITARIAN, ECONOMIC & SOCIAL CONDITIONS

• On February 3, U.S. President Trump signed HR 7148, the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2026, which averted a government shutdown and includes a $121 million appropriation for Myanmar.

• WHO reported a record number of deadly attacks in 2025 were on healthcare facilities, as verified by its Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care.

• Despite crackdowns, new Chinese-run scam hubs controlled by junta-aligned militia expanded in Myawaddy Township, Kayin State, indicating the reconfiguration at dismantled compounds.

U.S. INTERNATIONAL & REGIONAL
POLITICS DIPLOMACY

• On February 3, the White House announced the Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to the Situation in and in Relation to Burma, acknowledging that “the situation in and in relation to Burma continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

• On February 3, Myanmar, Iran, Belarus, Russia, and North Korea announced the launch of a consultative process to plan a proposed alliance, the Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity in the XXI Century.

• Myanmar and Russia also signed a new five-year military cooperation agreement on February 3. The alliance is seen as key for the junta’s survival. Later in the month, President Vladimir Putin ratified a bilateral investment agreement with the junta, and Russia announced it would train Myanmar’s first cosmonaut.

• Arakan Army Commander Twan Mrat Naing and Myanmar Foreign Minister Tan Swe both sent congratulations to newly appointed Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman, who previously served as senior advisor on the Rohingya issue under Bangladesh’s interim government.

• Timor-Leste opened a case file against the junta, leading to the expulsion of its top diplomat in Myanmar. Meanwhile, the junta increased its diplomatic engagement with Pakistan, seen as an effort to influence the Organization for Islamic Cooperation amid the ICJ process.

ROHINGYA CRISIS

• Rohingya communities across the world grieved the death of disabled Rohingya refugee Nurul Amin Shah Alam in Buffalo, New York, who spoke no English and was abandoned by Border Patrol in freezing rain with no shoes and light clothing. The incident highlighted the ongoing vulnerabilities and human rights concerns faced by the community even after third-country resettlement.

• Analysts considered the impacts of Bangladesh’s February 12 elections, which the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) won in a landslide victory, on the country’s governance of the Rohingya crisis. The BNP oversaw the repatriation of previous waves of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, moves criticized as premature given the lack of improved conditions for returnees.

• A former police officer who ordered the arrest of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo for their reporting on the Rohingya genocide was elected as a member of parliament in Magway.

DOMESTIC POLITICS

• COAR (Center for Operational Analysis and Research) released its summary report on the Myanmar election results.

• A powerful retired general, Khin Yi, was appointed as speaker of parliament of the newly formed government. Khin Yi is also chairman of the military’s Union Solidarity and Development Party.

• The 2025-2026 elections were reported to have seen an estimated 54 percent voter turnout, with the USDP winning 72 percent of seats.

• Parliament will convene March 16-20. Lawmakers will elect speakers for both houses, form parliamentary committees and select a president by the beginning of April.

BUSINESS, TRADE & NATURAL RESOURCES

• Despite being the world’s third largest producer of rare earth minerals, Myanmar was excluded from the 54 countries attending the February 4 Critical Minerals Ministerial hosted by the White House.

• A two-week border closure along the Mizoram-Chin State border was put in place on February 16 following the death of an Indian trader and lifted two weeks later. The border was previously closed in December during a cholera outbreak.

• The Kenglat trade post bordering Laos in eastern Shan State has become a major trade lifeline for the junta and was recently upgraded with Chinese financing.

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