Myanmar: More than 6,800 people killed since the coup began
Violence in Myanmar is spiralling as the military junta increases its attacks on monasteries, schools and camps sheltering people uprooted by the civil war, a top independent human rights investigator warned on Wednesday.
In an update on the grave situation in the southeast Asian nation, Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews said that more than 6,800 people have been killed since generals seized power in a coup in February 2021.
Today, Myanmar’s military – the Tatmadaw – has lost considerable territory, soldiers and facilities to resistance fighters, the independent rights expert maintained.
Armed with support from allies outside the country, the generals have resorted to an “acceleration of airstrikes” on civilian targets in a bid to cut opposition forces’ supply lines, Mr. Andrews insisted.
“The use of aircraft has been increasing and the use of bombing have been increasing,” he told journalists, adding that these “indiscriminate” aerial attacks have struck schools and monasteries. “We've documented that they have hit centres for internally displaced persons. I met a dad who lost his two - only two children - two daughters, after he brought them to an IDP centre for safety, because the IDP centre was hit.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Mr. Andrews insisted that Myanmar’s generals were “loathed” by the country’s people, who face forced military conscription and human rights abuses.
More than 22,000 political prisoners are now in prison, “most of whom are guilty of only exercising their fundamental rights, including speaking out and participating in demonstrations, opposing a brutal military junta”, the Special Rapporteur maintained.
“They're losing ground, literally and figuratively, but they have significant resources available to them, financial resources and weapons that are being provided to them from abroad,” Mr. Andrews maintained. “And as long as those resources continue to flow, they're going to continue to wreak significant havoc, and they're not hesitant to do so.”
In the aftermath of the devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar on 28 March, Mr. Andrews also alleged that the Tatmadaw moved to divert aid relief to areas under its control and reportedly evicted earthquake survivors from their shelters. “The junta has taken the same approach with earthquake relief that it takes to all humanitarian aid generally: block the delivery of aid to opposition-controlled areas and attempt to force all donors and agencies to deliver aid only into its own hands,” he said.
In a call to the international community to condemn upcoming elections in Myanmar – the first since the coup - as “a charade and a fraud”, the rights expert urged UN Member States to show solidarity with the country’s people.
Highlighting a rare piece of good news about Myanmar, Mr. Andrews welcomed the “one-third reduction in the flow of weapons…into the hands of the military junta” thanks to measures involving the international financial system supported by Member States”.
According to the Special Rapporteur, Singapore took action that reduced 90 per cent of the weapons flowing from the country into Myanmar. In Thailand, the Bangkok Bank also ceased dealings with the junta-controlled Myanmar Economic Bank, cutting off the financing needed to buy weapons. “These are specific actions that are extremely positive and very fruitful,” Mr. Andrews said.
Meanwhile, the global humanitarian funding crisis is already having major negative repercussions in Myanmar, Mr. Andrews explained, noting that its humanitarian needs and response plan is only 12 per cent funded.
“Before the coup, there were 300,000 people internally displaced in Myanmar; now there are more than 3.5 million,” Mr. Andrews explained. “Nearly 1.5 million refugees from Myanmar are currently living in other countries. Nearly a third of the population of Myanmar are facing acute food insecurity; 21.9 million people are in need of humanitarian aid.”
Special Rapporteurs are independent human rights experts who work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.
STORY: Myanmar crisis – Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews
TRT: 2’40”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 25 JUNE 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Speakers
SHOTLIST
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Gaza: Hospitals continue to overflow with people injured while seeking food - WHO
As besieged Palestinian civilians face widespread malnutrition and starvation, hospitals in the Strip are increasingly overwhelmed by the influx of victims of shootings and other injuries at food distribution areas, warns the World Health Organization.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , WHO , UNMAS
Urgent help is needed to halt a deadly cholera outbreak that is sweeping across Sudan, UN agencies said on Friday, while warning that communities continue to be terrorized by parties to the conflict even as they flee violence.
2
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News , Images | UNEP
Negotiations got under way at UN Geneva on Tuesday to agree on a legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution, with delegates from nearly 180 countries attending.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNICEF
Gaza: Hundreds of trucks per day of free aid needed “for months”, in addition to commercial supplies - OCHA
Despite the tactical pauses Israel introduced last week to allow some safe passage for humanitarian convoys, the amount of aid that has entered Gaza remains by far insufficient for the starving population, and UN trucks continue to face impediments on their way to delivering aid.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
Aid agencies echoed wider warnings of growing signs of widespread starvation in Gaza on Tuesday, as UN-partnered international food security experts released their most dire assessment yet of the situation in the wartorn enclave.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , UNDP , UNHCR
Sudan: urgent help needed as more than 1.3 million war-displaced people begin to return home
As conflict rages on across parts of Sudan, pockets of relative safety have emerged in the past four month, spurring more than one million internally displaced Sudanese to make their way home, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM). A further 320,000 cross-border refugees have come back to Sudan since last year, mainly from Egypt and South Sudan, to assess the current situation before deciding to return to their country for good.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , WHO
Gaza: SOS messages describe people fainting from hunger; UN health worker detained
Worrying alerts from United Nations staff in Gaza who have been fainting from hunger and exhaustion over the past 48 hours have increased fears for people’s survival in the devastated enclave, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , UNOG
Over 11.6 million refugees risk losing aid access due to funding cuts, says UNHCR
Approximately one in three refugees and other vulnerable individuals normally supported by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) are expected to lose out from funding cuts, it said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made the following announcement on the Office’s opening of a new mission in Bangladesh.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
“The surge in the number of Afghans forced or compelled to return to Afghanistan this year is creating a multi-layered human rights crisis requiring the urgent attention of the international community,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday called for accountability and justice for the killings and other gross human rights violations and abuses in the southern city of Suweida.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNHCR
Syria: hundreds killed in Sweida, ‘widespread’ violations as civilians flee for their lives
Amid violent clashes in southern Syria’s Sweida governorate, a picture of grave human rights abuses and rising humanitarian needs is emerging by the hour, the UN said on Friday.