A man walks past military barricades in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Oct. 23.STR/AFP/Getty Images
Britain imposed on Tuesday further sanctions targeting the Myanmar military’s access to equipment and funds, saying the measures would hinder the junta’s ability to carry out air strikes on civilians.
Taken in co-ordination with the European Union and Canada, the financial sanctions target six entities involved either in providing aviation fuel to Myanmar’s military or in the supply of restricted goods, including aircraft parts, the British government said.
The sanctions bolster previous measures against aviation fuel suppliers to the Myanmar military, it added, and involve asset freezes that will prohibit financial dealings by the entities.
“The human rights violations taking place across Myanmar, including air strikes on civilian infrastructure, by the Myanmar military is unacceptable and the impact on innocent civilians is intolerable,” Britain’s minister for the Indo-Pacific region, Catherine West, said.
A spokesperson for Myanmar’s junta did not immediately respond to calls for comment.
Myanmar is locked in a civil war between an armed resistance movement loosely allied with ethnic minority rebels, and a military that has lost control of swathes of the country following a 2021 coup against a government led by former leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Britain said the military was using increasingly “brutal tactics” to remain in power and had killed dozens of civilians in a record number of air strikes carried out in August.
The EU said it had imposed sanctions on three individuals and one company associated with Myanmar’s junta for alleged human rights violations.