Across Burma (Myanmar), 3.7 million people are displaced and in need of medical and food aid, as well as international protection from government airstrikes.
Civilians are being bombed every single day by the Burma Army, and neither the UN nor the international community is doing anything to stop China and Russia’s support of the junta’s army or its access to funding, jet fuel, and weapons.
The Burma war has been ongoing for nearly 80 years, with the world largely ignoring the growing displacement and humanitarian crisis caused by a government at war with its own people.
When the generals launched a coup in February 2021, overturning the results of a free election, the news went largely unnoticed as America was wrestling with its own contested presidential election.
A year later, when Russia invaded Ukraine, coverage was so pervasive that news readers around the world believed it was the world’s only ongoing conflict.
The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 diverted some attention away from the Ukraine war and pushed the Burma conflict even further down the list of international priorities.
At least three times during President Trump’s first and second administrations, the United States passed legislation and appeared poised to send some type of relief to Burma.
But with the current Iran conflict underway, Burma has once again fallen out of the international consciousness.
Meanwhile, the Burma Army continues its unrelenting campaign of death and displacement against the country’s civilian population.
Resistance groups are holding the line as best they can, but at this point they are running out of ammunition and have no air-defense systems to counter Burma Army drones and airstrikes.
At the front, I observed that most of the resistance soldiers were not wearing helmets and most did not have body armor.
Checking the armor of the soldiers closest to me, I saw that many were wearing empty plate carriers, which provide no protection at all, while a few had cheap Chinese airsoft vests that a bullet would tear right through.
Most told me they only had thirty rounds of ammunition, and one soldier told me he only had three.
And this ragtag group of boys has spent the last five years, a quarter of their lifespans, holding the line against the powerful Burma Army before them, supported by China and Russia, with their families and loved ones in displaced persons camps behind them.
Civilians are fleeing in increasingly large numbers, taking refuge in resistance-controlled areas, but those areas are shrinking. The attacks not only continue, they are getting closer.
People who have already been displaced multiple times now find themselves in camps with no water, no international support, and no international protection. The government considers internally displaced persons camps to be acceptable targets.
This month, Free Burma Rangers (FBR) on the frontlines across Burma have documented the junta’s continued pattern of attacks on civilians and displaced communities.
Burma Army troops overran Kyaw Gon Village in Kler Lwe Htoo District, Karen State, on March 5, displacing more than 4,000 villagers and capturing more than 150 civilians, including men, women, children, and infants.
Witnesses reported that captives were forced to lie beside the road and were shot if they raised their heads. At least 30 civilians were killed, and survivors were forced to dig graves for the dead.
Resistance forces retook the village on March 8 and freed 41 hostages, though many villagers remain missing and the status of those still in captivity is unknown.
Airstrikes in Mu Traw District caused further civilian casualties. On March 8, a Burma Army jet strike on Mae Kaw Law Village killed a 23-year-old villager and seriously injured her husband and two-year-old daughter while they sheltered in their home.
The following day, another jet bombing in Ta Oh Der Village destroyed five houses, injured seven villagers, and killed two people, including the seventy-year-old wife of the village pastor and her three-year-old granddaughter.
In southern Shan State, clashes in Mawkmai Township beginning February 1, 2026, when junta and Pa-O National Organization joint forces fought Pa-O National Liberation Army troops in several villages, have displaced more than 1,000 civilians, leaving many without access to food, healthcare, or clean water.
Residents who fled are hiding in forests or sheltering in communities such as Na Hee Village, in locations aid workers describe as remote and difficult to reach.
About 80 percent of the displaced population remains in hiding, fearing renewed violence. Many also avoid returning to agricultural fields due to the risk of landmines.
The Pa-O National Organization, a Burma Army-aligned militia, has provided neither medical assistance nor food aid to those affected.
Local volunteers report no functioning clinics and very limited food supplies, leaving children, the elderly, and pregnant women at particular risk.
The week’s violence ended with a Burma military airstrike on a women’s detention center in Mese Township, Karenni State, around 10:30 a.m. The center held family members of Burma Army soldiers.
The strike killed five people, including three women, one man, and one child, while another child was injured.
Free Burma Rangers evacuated the survivors and provided medical treatment before moving them to safer locations. The attack illustrated that Burma Army airstrikes have become so indiscriminate that they now kill even those connected to the military itself.
These incidents are not isolated. Burma Army operations across Karen, Karenni, and southern Shan states killed civilians, displaced thousands, and injured resistance fighters throughout early March.
UNHCR’s displacement overview as of February 16, 2026 places the total IDP figure at 3,704,700, distributed across all states and regions, with roughly 90% displaced since the February 2021 coup. Since the military takeover, millions more have experienced displacement multiple times, on average eight times per person.
Roughly 4 million Burmese have fled to Thailand, where only 108,000 have been given shelter in refugee camps with UN support.
Those with passports and ID cards are able to study at university or work legally, while most of the rest survive as registered migrant workers or as undocumented laborers on farms, in construction, or in hotels.
Beyond Thailand, 1.3 million are sheltering in Bangladesh, roughly 120,000 are believed to be in Malaysia, more than 23,000 are in India, and another 1.5 million have been granted asylum in other countries.
The displacement has been driven in part by the systematic destruction of healthcare. Since the February 2021 coup through January 20, 2026, Insecurity Insight has recorded at least 1,869 incidents of violence against or obstruction of healthcare in Myanmar.
The Myanmar Armed Forces were responsible for 70% of those incidents. Healthcare facilities were damaged or destroyed on 471 occasions and seized for non-medical use 227 times.
At least 170 health workers were killed and another 909 arrested. Armed drones struck healthcare targets 74 times between February 2021 and December 2025.
The most pressing humanitarian health needs are driven by the lack of access to basic healthcare as a result of damage and destruction of health facilities, direct attacks on health centers, health workers, patients, and ambulances, logistical challenges in securing life-saving medical supplies, and the lack of trained health workers.
Access is particularly dire in Rakhine and Kayah, where nearly half the population faces serious difficulties, while between 25% and 40% of residents in Kachin, Tanintharyi, Kayin, Northern Shan, and Chin need humanitarian health assistance.
An estimated 1.5 million children under five have missed basic vaccinations since 2018, posing a serious threat of measles and diphtheria outbreaks and the possible re-emergence of polio.
The post EXCLUSIVE: In a World Distracted by Other Conflicts, the Burma Army Continues Its Campaign of Killing and Displacement appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.