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Myanmar Civil War Displacement Since the 2021 Coup

2021–ongoing · East & Southeast Asia

Displacement Mass Killing Sexual Violence Ongoing

Displaced

3.7 million

About 3.73 million people displaced inside Myanmar since the February 2021 coup were still displaced as of 20 July 2026, on UN in Myanmar estimates compiled by UNHCR. This excludes about 234,000 who were displaced before the coup and remain so: 157,700 in central Rakhine, 68,400 in Kachin, 7,600 in northern Shan and 300 in Chin, who are covered by the Rakhine camp and Kachin entries. The total internally displaced population is about 3.96 million. A further roughly 204,000 people displaced to neighbouring countries since the coup remain displaced, among them about 62,400 in India and 141,900 in Bangladesh. These are point-in-time counts of people still displaced, not cumulative movements.

Share of the population affected

6.9%

of the population of Myanmar at the time of the coup, 2021

Killed

100,114

conflict deaths incl. combatants

As of 2026-07. UNHCR's Myanmar emergency overview of 20 July 2026, using UN in Myanmar estimates, counts 3,727,700 people displaced since 1 February 2021 and still displaced, 234,000 displaced before the coup (as of 31 December 2025) and 204,300 displaced to neighbouring countries since the coup. Figures are revised as fighting continues.

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What happened

Myanmar's military seized power from the elected civilian government in February 2021, triggering nationwide protests that the military suppressed with lethal force, followed by an expanding armed conflict as newly formed "People's Defense Forces" allied with long-standing ethnic armed organizations across the country. Fighting, airstrikes, and village burnings have driven mass displacement, with the UN recording roughly 3.48 million internally displaced people as of late 2024, about 3.21 million of them displaced since the coup, concentrated in Sagaing, Kayin, Kayah, Chin, and Rakhine regions. By July 2026 the UN estimated about 3.73 million people displaced since the coup and still displaced inside the country, and about 204,000 more in neighbouring countries, chiefly Bangladesh and India. The conflict, combined with a collapsing economy, has produced Myanmar's largest displacement crisis in decades, compounding earlier internal displacement including the Rohingya crisis in Rakhine State.

Parties

Myanmar's military (Tatmadaw), which seized power in a February 2021 coup, has fought an expanding array of resistance forces and ethnic armed organizations, driving mass internal displacement and refugee flight

Disputed

Myanmar's military government disputes casualty and displacement figures reported by the UN, opposition National Unity Government, and independent trackers, and characterizes much of the fighting as a response to "terrorism" by resistance forces, a framing rejected by opposition and rights groups.

The denominator

The 2014 census counted 51.5 million, with parts of Rakhine State excluded from enumeration; UN estimates give about 54 million for 2021. The junta's 2024 census was only partially conducted and its results are not treated as reliable.

The figure is a point-in-time count of people displaced since the February 2021 coup who remained displaced in July 2026. It excludes the roughly 234,000 displaced before the coup and people who have since returned, so it understates cumulative displacement.

Where the baseline comes from

OCHA Myanmar Humanitarian Update No. 49, September 2025official
Demographics of Myanmaropen-edited

On the death toll

ACLED recorded 100,114 conflict-related fatalities between the February 2021 coup and mid-2026 across all sides, the milestone reported in July 2026. ACLED and the reporting around it stress there is no official toll and that event-based monitoring undercounts; the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners maintains a much smaller separate count restricted to individually verified civilians killed by the junta. Because no upper-bound survey or excess-mortality study has been published, the figure is presented as a documented floor rather than a range.

Documented forms of violence

Mass KillingSummary ExecutionTortureSexual ViolenceArbitrary DetentionDestruction of Property

The IIMM's 2025 annual report, built on more than 1,300 sources and some 600 eyewitness accounts, documents summary executions, systematic torture and electric shock in detention facilities, gang rape and sexual mutilation, and air strikes destroying civilian homes, schools and hospitals.

Formal findings

UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) (2025) — Annual report covering July 2024-June 2025 states the Mechanism has collected evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity since the coup, including systematic torture in detention, gang rape, summary executions of captured combatants and civilians, and air attacks on schools, homes and hospitals — source

Movements mapped

Sagaing Region: largest internally displaced caseload (1,346,100 as of July 2026)
Kayin (Karen) State → Mae Sot, Thailand
Chin State and Sagaing → Mizoram and Manipur, India62,400
Rakhine State → Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh (post-coup arrivals, mostly Rohingya)141,900

Countries touched, on present-day borders

Myanmar, Thailand, India, Bangladesh

Related entries

Continues from: Myanmar's Kachin Offensive and Displacement after the 2011 Ceasefire Collapse
After the fix, the post-coup figure excludes the 68,400 pre-coup Kachin and 7,600 northern Shan IDPs, so the figures no longer overlap. Kachin displacement continues in the post-coup entry (181,400 displaced in Kachin since the coup).
Overlaps with: Rohingya Confined in Closed Camps and Villages in Rakhine State, Myanmar
The UN's Myanmar displacement total used for the post-coup entry includes Rohingya held in Rakhine camps since 2012. 130,000 people are counted in both entries.

Sources

Number of internally displaced in Myanmar doubles, to 800,000official
Myanmar Emergency Update (as of end November 2024)official
Myanmarofficial
UNHCR: Myanmar Emergency Overview Map, as of 20 July 2026 (via ecoi.net)official