Grey Pillars Where Homes Once Stood: The people of southern Karen State unify against brutal military rule.

A warehouse in Maw Taung, destroyed by Burma Army jet fighters on May 2nd. A family of three was injured and treated by Rangers. 

We watched a young mother, carrying both her children, race to a nearby bunker. This was our only warning to find cover. Above the howling wind and the rustling trees, we had failed to hear the humming of the jet engines. When that hum grew into a deafening shriek, there was nothing for us to do except lie down and pray. The bomb exploded, the jet flew off, and a kilometer away, grey columns rose to the sky; we had been spared this time.

This was May 2nd of 2026 in the town of Maw Taung, Mergui-Tavoy district. For the two children dangling helplessly from their mother's arms, it will likely not be the last time they flee desperately for cover. A life under fire is the past, present, and foreseeable future of more than 250,000 displaced people in the Mergui-Tavoy District of Karen State.

In 2012, the Free Burma Rangers paused relief work in Mergui, Tavoy, due to the stabilization that resulted from the ceasefire signed by both the Burma military and ethnic armed groups. But in 2025, at the request of local leaders, FBR restarted relief work in Mergui-Tavoy to help with the growing challenges since the 2021 military coup. The Burma military seized power from the civilian government and significantly expanded the scale and destruction of the nearly 80 year civil war. Now, FBR has established a team of rangers local to Mergui Tavoy, and in the last two years, the foreign volunteer team has partnered with them twice to assist more than 3000 IDPs and villagers.   

FBR's most recent mission began in the key Thai-Burma border town of Maw Taung. In November of last year, after a four-day battle, the Karen National Union (KNU) defeated the Junta military and re-established control over a town that had been in the hands of the Burma Army since 1994.

Thanks to this historic accomplishment, many displaced people were able to return to their homes, or what was left of them. “I will not reconstruct my house,” said a Maw Taung resident standing in front of a bombed-out bungalow. “I want to preserve it as a museum for future generations so that they may never forget what happened here.” Near the end of our conversation, he put on a playful but tired smile. “In truth,” he admitted, “I have no money to pay for the repairs.” Countless homes remain in the same condition, still vacant. Some residents were not so quick to return after the KNU’s victory, conscious of the charred smells that still lingered in the air and the knowledge that the Burma Army is still close enough to strike again. The same month Maw Taung was liberated, the Burma Army began a three-day attack on the village of Mae Wah, less than 50km to the west. 

A civilian's home, destroyed by Burma Army aircraft. Two bombs landed in this neighborhood only hours before the photo was taken. 

Locals told us that FBR is the only outside organization that has come to help since the 2021 coup. In the years since, battles for control over Southern Karen have sharply increased. From Maw Taung, our journey would take us west, to multiple villages, IDP camps, and river towns that have not seen a foreign entity since the time of the British. Our mission is to provide medical assistance, human rights documentation, and encouragement to the locals.

Mergui-Tavoy is the most tropical and remote part of Karen State. Nestled between the Andaman Sea and Southern Thailand, it marks the northern limits of the Malay Peninsula. It is also the largest district, with an area greater than the other six Karen districts combined. Its endless jungles—with banana trees, betel nut palms, bamboo groves, and enormous teak trees—gave the mountains a scraggly appearance. Throughout the journey, this dense brush was essential in sheltering us from harsh sunlight and hostile aircraft.

Wildlife too was surprisingly varied: freshwater sharks, shrimp the size of a banana, snub-nosed monkeys, pythons, and monitor lizards. The latter was introduced by Orange, a senior Ranger, as “crocodile’s cousin.” All, as many of our hosts showed us, made for delightful meals. The cultural makeup here was no less diverse. A small village would be home to people of Myik, Baet, Bamar, Mom, Karenni, and Karen descent. In total, more than 100 different ethnicities share this coastal mass.

Despite the beauty of Southern Karen, the traces of war were always present. But to our local Ranger team, this was home, and their guidance and skills were always a invaluable. Leading this team was Saw Orange, a long-time Ranger and our local coordinator. Without his knowledge and keen senses, we would have been heavily impaired, or worse. “Stay on the trail,” Orange warned, pointing to a small branch, twisted in a precise manner. “Land mines on both sides."

Only a few kilometers from these minefields, dozens of skeletal structures began to line the dirt path. Looking close, we could see they were bamboo shelters, with families of up to six members hiding under a tarp roof. These were not the beginnings of a new house under construction but the homes of internally displaced people (IDPs), a regular sight across Southern Karen. Although they are easily rebuilt when destroyed, they can only provide a small degree of shelter. In the rainy season, they will have to move again, and food is never simple to come by. “The hardest thing is not knowing when the war will end,” said a mother of two, “not knowing when you can go home or what I am going to feed my children tomorrow.” This IDP camp held more than one thousand villagers. It is only one of the five that resulted from the invasion of Mae Wah. “We fled into the jungle, leaving everything behind," recounted a Mae Wah village leader, now living in an IDP camp. “They burnt our gardens, our crops, and our houses.” All was said with remarkable casualness that comes after a lifetime of war. 

The hills across Maw Taung, liberated by the KNU in 2025. 

This particular camp was less than 5 km from Burma Army positions; drone strikes and mortar fire were a constant threat, making religious gatherings and school sessions life-threatening acts. In response, we provided hours of medical training for men, women, and children on casualty extraction and how to minimize extreme bleeding. Camp leaders also listed food, medical aid, and education as some of their most immediate needs. We were able to respond to these with financial assistance for rice, as well as textbooks and stationery to help educate the youth.

We also set up clinics in five IDP camps. The Myanmar government spends less than 4% of its GDP on healthcare, making it one of the lowest in the world. Moreover, these pitiful benefits are only available in the urban centers, where non-Bamar ethnics are often barred from entering. Mothers carrying their fever-ridden children and old men leaning on their grandchildren would travel miles in hopes of finding some form of medical treatment. The team worked tirelessly and treated more than 300 patients across various camps and villages.

The marks of suffering were apparent in the cautious glances of small children and the weary, blank stares of the older folk. Rangers know these symptoms all too well. Some of Orange's earliest memories are those of him and his family fleeing the Burma Army onslaught. “My grandmother put me on her back,” he recalled. "We had to leave most of our belongings behind. When we turned, we could see plumes of smoke rising in the distance.” The memory of his grandmother pointing out each of these black clouds is still quite vivid, despite the fact that he was only three years old. “That is your uncle’s house, that is the church, and that is our home." Orange himself has been an IDP his whole life. The same kind of memories are shared by many of our team members.

A mother awaits treatment for her fever ridden child. This was one of the many clinics set up by Rangers.

Our Good Life Clubs (GLC), we were able to provide a bit of solace. Children and adults alike could joined in the songs and dances; they listened eagerly to the stories of hope and love, and the skits in particular had whole villages roaring with laughter. We conducted a total of five GLC programs across Southern Karen, and the need for joy and laughter was evident every step of the way.

Our mission was nearing its end, and it was time to move back east. But at that moment, we received information that the Burma Army had advanced closer to our next destination. We had to move quickly. In a single afternoon, we heard more than five Burma military jets fly overhead. These began as a frenzy of radio activity and a low hum far above the clouds. There, a small, seemingly insignificant, black speck might appear. Then came the sound of distant thunder.

Families pose during a Good Life Club. Some children and adults remain apprehensive; this IDP camp was less than five kilometers away from Burma Army positions.

We responded to five airstrikes and documented an additional four. And the evidence we collected continues to prove that the Burma Army does not differentiate between military and civilian targets; only one out of the nine airstrikes held any military value. Neither do they discriminate between ethnicities.

Karen families told us how their homes were set aflame by the Burma Army. A Baet mother, guiding us through the rubble, described how she rushed her children into a bomb shelter only seconds before a Burma military jet destroyed their home. With glazed eyes, she struggled to make sense of it. “We do not understand; we do not know what we did to deserve this.” There were no resistance fighters in the area at the time of the attack.

Holding the photo of an elderly woman, a Myik man recalled the day a building opposite his house was completely demolished by Burma military aircraft. “When I returned to my house, my mother was lying on the floor in a pool of blood.” Stray shrapnel had caught her in the stomach, and by the time they reached the hospital, she was dead. We were able to help these victims with some financial assistance. More importantly, we documented their stories and prayed with them for healing of their bodies and minds; that peace would return and that hate would not take root. 

Upon our return to Maw Taung, the situation had deteriorated severely. It was a day after our return that the bombing of May 2nd occurred and left a family of three wounded. Thankfully we were there to respond quickly; our medics attended to the father, his wife, and their small baby, then transported them to the nearest hospital. This was the first airstrike within Maw Taung since the KNU had taken it in November. This was the end of our mission, and it was time for the foreign volunteer team to depart. Thankfully we were able to do so safely, but for the people of Maw Taung, it was only the beginning.

Shortly after the foreign volunteers left, the Burma Army launched a full-scale assault on the town. Alongside air and mortar attacks, local resistance reported that Burma Army troops took monks and civilians to use as human shields during their advance. We also received reports of rape and photographic evidence of torture. On May 20th, Maw Taung fell back under the control of the Burma Army.

More violence, more suffering, and, like Orange's early memories, more grey pillars where homes once stood. The cycle seems to continue, just as it has for more than seven decades. But things are different now. Despite the great differences between the people of Southern Karen, it is this suffering that unites them today. Historically, the conflict in Karen State has been an ethnic struggle between the Bamar and the Karen, but now, the lines have been redrawn. “Burma has never been more united than it is today,” declared a sergeant in the People’s Defense Force, himself of Bamar descent, and his column commander, a Karen man, nodded in agreement. “Megui Tavoy is a testament to this unification.” The unification against a notoriously brutal military.

The ethnic Rangers are still with their people. Documenting attacks and providing food supplies and essential items. Helping villagers flee, building bamboo shelters for them and tending to the sick and injured. Some of their last updates read as follows:

"All team members are safe. We ask for prayers that the enemy troops would withdraw and return to their base and that God would touch their hearts. Thank you so much, and God bless you all.” - Saw Orange

We pray for the people of Maw Taung and all of Megui Tavoy. We pray for protection from airstrikes, mortars, and rampaging soldiers. We pray for peace to return to their beautiful home. We pray the Burma Army soldier's hearts would change, that they would stop their attacks, and we pray the people of Megui Tavoy would have the courage to forgive. Most of all we pray for our brave Rangers, still out on the front risking their lives to love and help people.

Thanks and God bless,

Ben and the Free Burma Rangers