Situation inside Burma 

Burma is made up of 135 different ethnic groups, each with its own history, language, and culture. 

In 1948 Burma gained independence from Britain but soon afterwards fighting developed between the ethnic groups who wanted to keep their own identity and the central government who wanted to unify the country. The result was a civil war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

Many Karen villages have been destroyed.

There was a brief period of democracy from November 8, 2015 but this ended in February 1, 2021 when the Burmese military overthrew the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government claiming that the party had stolen the country´s November 2020 ballot through voter fraud. This resulted in a civil war that continues until today.