UN Must Impose a Global Arms and Fuel Embargo on the Myanmar Military Junta

The United Nations Member States convening in New York City for the General Assembly between 9 and 23 September should collaborate to impose a global embargo on jet fuel and arms to the Myanmar military junta, following daily airstrike attacks on civilians, said Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) today.

In a recent attack on 11 September 2025, the military junta killed at least 22 high school students and injured 26 others in Thayet Thapin village in Kyauktaw Township, Rakhine State. The military dropped two 500-pound bombs on a private school in the middle of the night while students slept. The attack was in a civilian area with no clear military target. This is just the latest of many deadly airstrikes against civilians by the military junta who has killed at least 284 civilians across Myanmar in August alone.

“Junta airstrikes have repeatedly struck schools, monasteries, and displacement sites in civilian areas,” said Kyaw Win, executive director of Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN). “UN member states should press the Security Council to impose a global arms embargo and an end‑to‑end ban on aviation fuel to Burma’s military. Regardless of Council action, governments should adopt coordinated national measures to stop these supplies by suspending export licenses, blocking fuel and aircraft‑related transfers and maintenance, denying port and insurance services, and sanctioning the companies and brokers enabling these war crimes.”

BHRN continues to monitor and document ongoing airstrikes against civilians and civilian infrastructure. BHRN August monthly monitoring report documented an airstrike on a kindergarten in Karenni state which killed 5 children, an airstrike in Kayah which killed 23 civilians, and an airstrike in Sagaing which killed 7 civilians, among others.

In June, according to reports, the junta airstrike on a displaced people’s camp killed at least three civilians, including a four-year-old, on the Karenni-Shan border in Pekhon Township, where the military has been fighting to expel Karenni resistance fighters.

In August 2025, a report from the United Nations Human Rights Office states, “The reliance of the military on aerial weaponry and its use of drones and paramotors have steadily risen over the years, leading to a near doubling of civilians killed by air strikes in 2024 compared with 2023, underscoring the need to continually update controls on the transfer of such equipment.”

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