The already dire human rights situation in Myanmar has plunged to a "new low", the United Nations warned on Tuesday, with illegal mining and scam centres fuelling the crisis.

The UN human rights office denounced the "ever-worsening brutal abuse" of the Rohingya minority and the "devastating impact" of illicit economies, including mining for rare earths.

Myanmar's ruling junta seized power in a coup on February 1, 2021 that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government, ending a 10-year experiment with democracy and plunging the southeast Asian nation into bloody turmoil and a humanitarian crisis.

Over the past five years, more than 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed across all sides as the military battles an array of pro-democracy and ethnic-minority rebels.