Since the coup d’etat staged by the Tatmadaw, or Myanmar’s armed forces, on February 1, 2021, the country has been plunged into a severe humanitarian and human rights crisis. The Tatmadaw are responsible for countless violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. At least 6,000 have been killed in conflict, and thousands of activists have been detained, tortured, or disappeared. The group has also conducted indiscriminate airstrikes against villages that have affected civilian populations. The country’s economic and social systems have largely been crippled. Nearly 20 million people, or a third of the country’s population, face alarming levels of poverty and hunger, and are expected to need humanitarian aid this year¹. Over 3.5 million people have been displaced across the country and outside its borders, and made increasingly vulnerable to economic insecurity and climate change impacts². 

Fueling the Tatmadaw’s deadly regime and the conflict is the rampant extraction and exploitation of Myanmar’s natural resources, especially through mining. Of particular concern is the increase of illegal and/or unregulated mining of critical minerals, like heavy rare earth minerals used in electric vehicles and wind turbines³. While the lucrative minerals are extracted and shipped abroad to support the renewable energy transition elsewhere, particularly in China (where these minerals are processed), the profits are reaped back into war and environmental destruction. Myanmar timber⁴, jade⁵, and natural gas⁶ are also bringing in ‘blood money’ for the junta. These extractive operations which trample on communities’ rights and poison their land and rivers must be stopped.