Inside Myanmar's civil war

In Myanmar (Burma), ethnic rebellions have been fighting the central government since 1949. The country is home to the oldest inter-ethnic conflict in the world. But since the coup d'état in February 2021, the country has plunged into a global civil war of unprecedented violence. The military junta now controls only 21% of the territory, the rest being contested (29%) or acquired (42%) by local armed local armed groups. The country is completely closed to journalists, and the war takes place behind closed doors. To bear witness to this event, I was smuggled into the country by armed groups several times between 2022 and 2025.

New recruits of the People's defense force (PDF) - the central armed organization uniting the country's various ethnic groups - receive their equipments after weeks of training in a secret rebel camp in eastern Myanmar.

Fighters from the ‘Tiger Battalion’ enter the village of Htee K'pler in April 2024, after several weeks of intense fighting to take control of the town. Inside, the Burmese army maintain a fortified position and fire mortars from a hill.

Yeyint, A rebel fighter, takes a salutary break during an advance through the jungle, in April 2024.

Raising the "Special Ranger Forces" flag. The red, white and blue horizontal stripes mark their karen ethnicity. the red flag with a white star in the center indicates the alliance with the PDF, which unites insurgents from the various peoples of Myanmar.

Young ones fled the ongoing war in central Myanmar for the relative safety of the Thai border. They play with wooden guns in a refugee camp. Along the border, many of them remain subject to trafficking.

A commander of the Kawthoolei liberation army (KTLA) - aN ethnic armed group - cleans his weapon in a combat outpost.

A fighter carries wooden training rifles to a training camp through the jungle.

A 17-year-old fighter of the KTLA.

New recruits of the PDF receive their equipments after weeks of training in a secret rebel camp in eastern Myanmar.

rebels smuggle supplies and medications into Myanmar from Thailand. The border is a trafficking hotspot but also a magnificent environmental sanctuary known for being the place with the largest concentration of wild tigers still alive in the world - now threatened by war.

Soldiers from the Tatmadaw, Myanmar's regular army, are taken prisoner by KTLA rebels in one of their jungle camps. For several months, they were crammed into this small wooden cage that didn't even allow them to stand upright. They were freed on January 31, 2023, the "Karen revolution day".

A Rebel Fighter patrols near a jungle camp of HIS armed organization.

A REBEL fighter Rests in a jungle camp of HIS armed organization.

A young REBEL in a Buddhist temple converted into an outpost, in an abandoned village, on a frontline, in April 2024.

Young insurgents charge their phones and walkie-talkies during a break in a resistance rear base. Electricity supplied by generators is extremely rare in the region.

A moment of rest on a frontline in southern Myanmar, in April 2024.

The fighters have been trying to retake a village from the Burmese army for 28 days. Some of them contracted malaria.

KTLA commanders prepare an assault on a Military position. According to Karen chiefs, tattoos protect against enemy bullets.

A 13-year-old child soldier in the ranks of an armed ethnic group in eastern Myanmar. Most of the country's armed ethnic organisations claim not to recruit minors.

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