New recruits to anti-junta forces undergo night combat training in a jungle training camp in Kayin State, Myanmar, near the Thailand-Myanmar border. The PDF experienced a surge in volunteers in reaction to national military conscription enacted in February 2024, and many young people fled to neighboring countries.
Myanmar has been racked by internal conflict for decades, most recently a 2021 military coup, which sparked widespread protests. Harsh junta retaliation, including firing on protesters with live rounds, night raids to arrest dissidents, and interrogation, torture, and executions led to armed opposition, and revolution. Different civilian militias, loosely organized into the People’s Defense Forces (PDF), escalated resistance in 2024.
As these ethnic insurgent groups are located around the country, the Myanmar military found itself fighting on numerous fronts, from the borderlands near India, China, and Thailand to the country’s heartland. In 2024 it suffered its worst losses so far. The United States Institute for Peace (USIP) reports 91 towns and 167 military battalions now controlled by rebel forces, but sees no resolution in sight. It predicts the conflict is likely to escalate in urban areas and central Myanmar in 2025, and be exacerbated should the military junta attempt to hold elections.
The photographer lived through a 1988 military coup, aged six, and saw history repeat itself when his own son was six in 2021. He has since traveled across the country, documenting different insurgent groups, and observing how, since the military junta has introduced mandatory conscription for people over 18, Myanmar is losing a generation: so many are joining insurgent militia, or leaving the country.
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