More than 100,000 people have been killed across all sides in Myanmar since a military coup five years ago triggered civil war, a conflict monitor said yesterday.

The military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, detaining the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and ending Myanmar’s decade-long experiment with democracy.

Anti-putsch protests were put down by security forces but activists quit cities to form pro-democracy guerrilla groups, fighting alongside ethnic minority armies that have long resisted central rule.

There have been 100,114 conflict-related fatalities since the coup, according to the latest data from monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), which tallies media reports of violence.

There is no official toll and estimates vary widely, but analysts regard the half-decade civil war as Asia’s deadliest active conflict.

“The pain is just endless,” said 49-year-old Thein Aye Nu, whose husband was killed in an airstrike in the western state of Rakhine last month.

“I am so deeply resentful and very angry. But I don’t even know who to be angry at anymore. I just have to console myself by accepting it as fate.”