Zin Wai

Internally displaced Myanmar mother from Wetlet Township, Sagaing Region, who sought refuge at Thettawshay Monastery after fleeing military forces and described her family’s displacement and the loss of a child in the 2025 earthquake.

Illicit Revenues Help Sustain Myanmar’s Fragmented Civil War

Bloomberg Investigates reporter Matthew Campbell argues that Myanmar’s civil war has become an income system as well as a struggle for territory and political control. With the military and its allies controlling an estimated 40% to 45% of the country, competing armed groups can monetize mining access, border crossings, illicit trade and scam compounds—revenues Campbell says can make continued war more profitable than peace. The result, the reporting shows, is borne by civilians displaced, impoverished and separated by a conflict with no decisive end in sight.

Bloomberg OriginalsAug 20, 20269 min read