Counting Myanmar’s Dead: Reported Civilian Casualties since the 2021 Military Coup

In the wake of the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021, a staggering 6,337 civilians were reported as killed over the following 20 months. The majority of these were victims of politically motivated murders. The primary perpetrator of this violence was the military junta, which was accountable for 3,003 civilian casualties during this period. However, armed opponents of the coup also contributed to the bloodshed, taking the lives of 2,152 alleged collaborators. Based on data from the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security’s Township-based Conflict Monitoring System (TCMS), combined with two other key datasets, this PRIO Paper provides a systematic statistical analysis of reported civilian casualties in Myanmar since the 2021 coup. The authors issue a stark warning: should the violence in Myanmar continue to escalate, the nation may be on the brink of a politicide.