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Tugboat Lost, Airstrikes to Cover the Retreat
A pusher tugboat with its hull torn open by drone strikes near Katha was what it took to bring the junta's air force down on Shwegu. The 15-vessel flotilla, loaded with rations and reinforcements for an encircled garrison at Bhamo, left Mandalay on August 21 and has been bleeding boats ever since. It lost a base at Zinbon, saw escort vessels routed there, and then abandoned the tugboat near Bokone Village, where KIA and PDF forces took it. The remnants of the convoy are now stuck unloading at Shwegu's river port under suicide drone and rocket fire, as fighter jets and Y-12 transports are working overtime to keep it there.
Read more: The Irrawaddy (casualties), BNI Online (convoy timeline)
Airstrikes Kill 88 Civilians in Two Weeks
The Burma Air Force flew 239 airstrikes in nine regions between August 8 and 23, killing 88 civilians and wounding 157, according to National Unity Government figures. Rebels abandoned Falam, Chin State's only airport town, in April after running out of ammunition under a six-month assault. By late May the military claimed the entire northern half of the state. Mass conscription has refilled army ranks with tens of thousands of troops, although China has brokered ceasefires with some ethnic armed groups and helped choke off weapons routes to others.
Read more: DVB (floods), Myanmar Now (Mindat), Al Jazeera
Rosatom to Break Ground on Nuclear Plant
Rosatom signed the site-survey contract this month, and director general Alexei Likhachev said that "this is essentially the start of construction." The company is expected to break ground not far from Naypyidaw sometime next year. The 110MW plant, modest when compared to installed national capacity of roughly 6,900MW, is expandable to 330MW and will run on two RITM-200N reactors adapted from Russia's nuclear icebreaker fleet. Putin said its a "flagship" project during Min Aung Hlaing's August visit to Moscow. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin laid it on thicker, saying it is "a new symbol of Russia-Myanmar friendship." Nobody has revealed who is going to be paying for the thing. Observers expect the junta, already funding a multi-front war it can barely afford, to take Russian soft loans that would be repayable once the plant starts generating power, or to settle the bill in kind from natural resources. Rosatom is making a similar pitch to Vietnam, Indonesia, and Laos.
Read more: The Irrawaddy (March 2025 agreement), The Irrawaddy (arms trade)
UN Ties $1.4B Rare Earth Boom to Chinese Buyers
Satellite imagery showed 302 new mining sites in Kachin State since the coup, almost two and a half times the previous total, feeding a trade to the Chinese market that peaked at $1.4 billion in 2023, the UN Human Rights Office said in a report. The report also put confirmed civilian deaths at 8,075 since the coup, a lower count than ACLED's estimated 100,000-plus total deaths (that one includes combatants). Internal displacement is 3.6 million people, with 12.4 million people facing acute hunger. Rights chief Volker Turk called on "all states, companies and investors to undertake serious soul-searching" about their dealings with the country.
Read more: Al Jazeera (annual death toll), Myanmar Now (100,000 death toll)
Scam Compounds Move Into Yangon Hotels
Chinese-linked syndicates once confined to barbed-wire compounds in Shan and Karen states are now running entire floors of fraud out of leased hotels and "IT training centers" in Yangon, guarded by digital locks and elevators instead of jungle fences. The venues often carry the names of legitimate hospitality chains, with windowless upper floors converted into secure facilities. The Tatmadaw and allied militias have been reported to be active partners as illicit cash flows into local real estate and business licenses.
Read more: Shan Herald
Junta Navy Sails to Malaysia to Collect 1,476
Two navy warships and a hospital ship will pick up 1,476 nationals from Malaysia on September 29. It’s the opening batch of a 5,000-person voluntary return deal that Anwar Ibrahim announced in July. Kuala Lumpur has been holding more than 10,000 Myanmar nationals in immigration detention and wants their identities and refugee claims verified by year-end. Malaysia is host to 215,600 UNHCR-registered refugees, almost all from Myanmar, including more than 126,000 Rohingya. No independent monitoring of the September 29 group is expected, and Malaysia's main Rohingya rights group has asked that government to put the plan on pause because returnees' lives would be at risk.
Read more: AP News (registration document rollout), Myanmar Now (Refugee Convention status)
Nine Years on, Rohingya Camps Run Low on Food
Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees rallied in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar camps, as they pass the nine year mark since Myanmar's military drove them out. They are protesting conditions that have reportedly gotten worse. More than 1.2 million refugees are packed into about 30 camps, where almost everyone still lives in bamboo-and-tarpaulin lean-tos. More than half the shelters need repairs. Funding has collapsed.
Read more: Myanmar Now (repatriation), ReliefWeb (children), ReliefWeb (aid), ReliefWeb (Canada funding)
Naypyidaw Presses Bangkok Again on Rebel Arms
General Ye Win Oo met Thai National Security Council chief Chatchai Bangchuad in Naypyidaw in an attempt to cut cross-border arms shipments to resistance forces. The meeting is the latest of at least three similar approaches since early August when Min Aung Hlaing raised it with Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul. Ye Win Oo then held his own Bangkok meeting with counterpart General Ukris Boontanondha before the two militaries' annual summit. The regime readout also mentioned cooperation on cyber-scam and gambling operations, drug smuggling, and restricted chemicals, but the arms pipeline into Karen, Karenni, and Tanintharyi is the one Naypyidaw keeps beating the drum on.
Read more: The Irrawaddy
Fuel Caps, Rice Prices, and Floodwaters All Rise
The Petroleum Products Regulatory Department raised its weekly cap on 92 RON gasoline to 3,710 kyats a liter, about $1.40 at the parallel rate, up from 3,575 the week before, and diesel climbed to 4,240 kyats from 4,070. Rice prices were up almost 4 percent month-on-month in July and about 10 percent over a year earlier. Fertilizer prices are also still well above last year but crop prices have barely moved. In the south, the Taninthayi River rose to a level of 7.5 meters, past its 7.3-meter danger mark, submerging a stretch of the Union Highway by more than three feet and sending 700 people into evacuation shelters.
Read more: The Star (floods), Cambodianess (fuel caps), ReliefWeb (food prices)
MEHL Detains Three Over Import Deals
Three senior officials at Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited, the military's flagship conglomerate, have been detained because of improper import dealings in a rare internal corruption case. The arrests have opened up a look into wider irregularities in how MEHL brings goods into the country. The conglomerate's import operations have never been subject to independent audit. No names have been released, and no charges have been so far been made public.
Read more: Myanmar Now
Bo Kyi Wins Magsaysay Award
Bo Kyi, jailed for seven years after Myanmar's 1988 uprising, won the 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award for more than 26 years of documenting political detentions through the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. AAPP reports more than 22,000 political prisoners still behind bars since the coup. Bo Kyi dedicated the award to them, as well as making a call for Aung San Suu Kyi's unconditional release.
Read more: The Irrawaddy (founding history), DVB (fifth Myanmar laureate)
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.
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