Myanmar Spring Chronicle – Viewpoint for October 4
(MoeMaKa) October 5, 2025
How ordinary people in Myanmar struggle to survive amid many kinds of hardship
Each day’s news is filled with stories like these: IDPs cutting back to one scant meal because aid is insufficient; a 60-year-old woman who jumped into the water and ended her life because she couldn’t repay a daily loan; displaced people trapped in blockaded towns who have no rations and can’t even afford funeral costs when someone dies; and the rape and killing of a girl barely past childhood. This is what the news looks like, day after day.
After the war escalated and the AA took control of almost all of Rakhine State, people living in junta-held towns such as Kyaukphyu and Sittwe have been subjected—under the pretext of security—to tight restrictions on movement and residence. Because farming, livestock, fishing and trade are blocked, many have no income and are struggling simply to stay alive; some say hardship has now stretched into a second year. From besieged Sittwe, only one air route is open. Even then, ordinary wage earners cannot afford the high ticket prices or manage the process. As a result many remain trapped in the blockaded city, surviving on the junta’s token 20,000-kyat monthly stipend, a mere thread to keep life going. Reports say that for those who remain in Sittwe, funerals can cost tens of thousands of kyat, beyond what families can pay.
While people in the state capital face food shortages and can’t get a regular meal, some other parts of Rakhine are now harvesting paddy—but there are no buyers and prices are depressed. War, the enemy–ally calculus, “security” closures, and four-way cut-off tactics have combined to make life precarious for everyone in these areas—bringing hunger, danger to life, and outbreaks of disease. Some parents, seeing no way out, have even chosen family suicide.
Although Rakhine has arable land and a long coastline for fish and shrimp, the ongoing civil war denies people the right to work in these livelihoods. Forced conscription of able-bodied men is also pushing the local labor force to flee abroad.
Similar situations exist elsewhere. In Kayah (Karenni) State, fighting and airstrikes have displaced tens of thousands. Because people had to leave their farms and herds, they now survive on whatever rations they managed to bring and on outside aid. Karenni is not a resource-rich or agriculturally abundant region like the river plains of the Irrawaddy, Magway or Sagaing, so ensuring enough food while hiding in forests and mountains is extremely difficult. According to Marwi, deputy commander of KNDF, speaking recently in Chiang Mai, groups controlling most of Karenni’s territory collect about 700,000 kyat per month in taxes, 60% of which is used for military expenses; the proceeds are then apportioned among the armed groups.
Displacement is severe as well in northern Shan, and among people fleeing the fighting along the Sagaing–Kachin border. In areas such as Naungcho and Kyaukme, towns captured by TNLA last year and now retaken by the military, villagers are being displaced for a second time. Media show burning towns, but widespread village destruction often goes unreported. In places like Banmauk (on the Kachin–Sagaing edge), the number of IDPs has surged again. When people abandon their homes and towns, they also lose houses, property and livelihoods. These losses are not easily replaced, and the psychological wounds are even harder to heal. When people see no hope of escape from this tightening hardship, suicides become more frequent.