At least 170 civilians killed in Myanmar air strikes during election: UN

At least 170 civilians were killed in more than 400 military air strikes conducted in Myanmar during nearly two months surrounding its widely-criticised elections, the United Nations said on Friday (January 30, 2026).

The UN rights office said “credible sources” had verified that at least “170 civilians were killed in some 408 military aerial attacks reported by open sources during the voting period — between December 2025 and January 2026”.

James Rodehaver, head of the rights office’s Myanmar team, warned that the actual numbers might be higher.

Speaking from Bangkok, he told reporters in Geneva that the verification covered a period from December to late last week, from the beginning of the election campaign and up until the three phases of voting were nearly complete.

But he warned that “because of the way in which communications are cut off and because of, frankly, the fear of individuals in some of these locations to speak to us, it sometimes takes a lot longer to get that information”.

His comments came amid global outrage over Myanmar’s month-long vote that democracy watchdogs dismissed as a rebranding of army rule, five years after a coup that ousted popular democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi.

UN rights chief Volker Turk warned in a statement on Friday (January 30) that “the profound and widespread despair inflicted on the people of Myanmar” since the 2021 coup “has only deepened with the recent election staged by the military”.

He pointed out that “many people chose either to vote or not to vote purely out of fear, flatly at odds with their internationally guaranteed civil and political rights — and with ripple effects on their enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights”.

“The conflict and insecurity continued unabated in large parts of the country. Opposition candidates and some ethnic groups were excluded,” he said.

His office pointed out that the elections were held in only 263 of 330 townships, and often exclusively in urban centres under military control, and limited in conflict areas.

“As a result, large segments of the population, especially the displaced and minorities, such as the ethnic Rohingya, were excluded,” it pointed out.

Turk decried that five years of military rule in Myanmar had been “characterised by repression of political dissent, mass arbitrary arrests, arbitrary conscription, widespread surveillance and limitation of civic space”.

“Now, the military is seeking to entrench its rule-by-violence after forcing people to the ballot box,” he said.

“This couldn’t be further from civilian rule.”