After the coup Three years on, the junta is struggling to assert control

Three years after seizing power, Myanmar's junta is struggling to assert control, with humiliating losses in recent months and growing criticism of its leader, Min Aung Hlaing, by pro-military figures.

- Rebecca Ratcliffe

Images shared across social media show weapons seized from overrun military outposts in the north, exhausted soldiers surrendering en masse and even a military jet plunging from the sky after it was shot down.

The UN says about two-thirds of the country remains gripped by conflict. The junta has lost key territory in the north along the border with China, and in the west, near the Indian border. Elsewhere, the military remains stuck in fierce battles, unable to quash a persistent resistance movement.

On social media, pro-military commentators have voiced dissatisfaction at the leadership. Last month, an ultranationalist monk, Pauk Sayardaw, called for Min Aung Hlaing to resign at a protest in Pyin Oo Lwin, a town in Mandalay region that is home to the elite Defence Services Academy, BBC Burmese reported.

Myanmar has been gripped by conflict since 2021, when the military seized power in a coup, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The coup prompted street protests calling for the return of democracy. People took up arms, often with little more than homemade weapons.