Hundreds of civil war victims treated every day as Myanmar chaos spills over Thailand border
Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot, a frontier town along the border with Myanmar, is a harrowing window into a civil war that has suddenly escalated.
In the searing heat of early morning, the wards are packed full of patients, some with catastrophic injuries.
We walk into a room full of amputees, many recently injured by airstrikes and landmines.
Lying on a bed with his stomach held together by a bandage, we meet Maung Maung.
His voice is incredibly strained, and he can hardly move. He’s just lost his two daughters. One was two years old, the other 14.
“They were hiding in a school. I thought it would be safe. After the bomb, I saw the body of one of my daughters ripped apart,” he tells us.
Many here say they’re too terrified to return to their home country and that fighting is now a daily threat.
Cordelia Lynch and the clinic’s founder Cynthia Maung (right)
For decades, Dr Cynthia Maung, founder of the clinic in Thailand, has seen the graphic side effects of the world’s longest-running civil war, a brutal clash between Myanmar‘s military and a mix of pro-democracy groups and local ethnic rebel armies.
In recent weeks though, she says the number of patients coming to her almost doubled to 500 a day.
“This is the worst in my time in 35 years here. This is the worst situation,” says Dr Maung.
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Eyewitness: Myanmar fighting intensifies
As we talk, there are patients of all ages. She is their great hope, but she’s juggling increasingly complex and desperate cases.
There’s recently been a sharp increase in those coming here wounded by bombs.
The embattled ruling junta has increasingly been carrying out airstrikes in the face of big losses. The resistance now controls more than half of Myanmar’s territory.
One of the most symbolic defeats came two weeks ago in Myawaddy. The small town has an outsized economic role, known as the so-called “gateway to Thailand”.
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Eyewitness: Myanmar fighting intensifies
It has long been a focal point for many of the ethnic and pro-democracy groups, but rarely looked vulnerable.
Yet two weeks ago, rebel forces led by the Karen ethnic army made their move, stunning observers by taking the town.
Social media videos show the military seemingly launching an operation to retake it – but their convoy is ambushed, resistance fighters taking over their vehicles and sending them fleeing.
At the top of a hill on the Thai side of the border, the army is watching everything closely. There’s a nervousness and tension that hasn’t been there since the coup in 2021.
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Sub-Lieutenant Chuchat Farangtong tells me: “I felt the resistance groups were well prepared.
“There were signs before they attacked. My unit could see their manpower and their weapons. And there were civilians waiting along the river getting ready to cross over.”
Now it seems control of the town could be shifting once again, with video emerging on Tuesday of a Junta soldier from 275th Battalion in Myawaddy raising their flag. Reports say fighters of the KNA faction, a Border Guard Force, allowed them through to re-establish control. We may well see more clashes ahead.
In the past few days alone, thousands have fled the fighting in Myanmar, many running away from conscription driven by a military desperately in need of more men.
Among them is 19-year-old Nyi Nyi, now in hiding in Thailand after secretly crossing the border – a terrifying journey that took three days.
“When I was fleeing, most of my friends got arrested by the military,” he says.
“They were interrogated and tortured. They trained them for just three weeks and then sent them to the frontline.”
Thai patrols are taking place on the border with Myanmar
He claims opponents are being brutally attacked by a military desperate to cling to power: “They starve opponents, put them in stress positions and beat them until they bleed from their ears.”
We asked the ruling junta about his allegations. They did not respond to our request for comment.
Myanmar’s military government has been losing ground in its borderlands for months, as pro-democracy militias and ethnic armed groups have launched a series of successful offensives.
That’s been made possible by previously disparate groups coming together.
It is unlikely the ruling military government is at risk of being overthrown imminently, but we haven’t seen a shift like this for years.
That’s a challenge for neighbouring countries trying to navigate their relationship with Myanmar, the creeping violence on the border areas and the exodus of Myanmar’s people.
Lieutenant Sivadumrong; police seem to be trying to play the role of protector and enforcer
We went on patrol with the Thai police who seem to be trying to play the role of protector and enforcer, helping some find refuge and detaining others.
They tell us they’ve arrested up to 30 people trying to cross illegally into Thailand every day.
“I’m worried that the bullets are flying to the Thai side,” Lieutenant Manop Sivadumrong says.
“So, we’ve deployed border police and provincial police along the border to prevent illegal migrants and to help the Myanmar people on both sides in case they are injured.”
It is a delicate balance for them and many other countries – one by-product of a conflict many have ignored.
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But the international community is slowly waking up.
China, the US, and Thailand are reassessing their strategies. Whatever happens next, the future of Myanmar will probably remain splintered, with no one authority in charge.
And a splintered state will likely reap havoc on innocent civilians and continue to spill across national borders.
The cardinals have arrived, the finishing touches are being made; Vatican City is preparing for an election like no other.
On Wednesday, the papal conclave begins and many visitors to St Peter’s Square already have a clear view on what they would like the outcome to be.
“I want a liberal pope,” says Joyce who has travelled to Rome from the US.
“My number one is Pierbattista Pizzaballa,” says blogger Teodorita Giovannella referencing the 60-year-old Italian cardinal.
Rome resident Michele Rapinesi thinks the next pope will be the Vatican’s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, who was Pope Francis’ number two.
Joyce has travelled all the way to Rome from the US
Michele Rapinesi speaks to Siobhan Robbins
Although the job of selecting the next pontiff lies with 133 cardinal electors, Ms Giovannella and Mr Rapinesi are among 75,000 Italians playing an online game trying to predict who they’ll pick.
Fantapapa is a similar format to fantasy football, but teams are made up of prospective pontiffs.
Ms Giovannella has chosen three popular Italians as her favourites: Cardinals Pizzaballa, Zuppi and Parolin.
After 47 years she wants an Italian pope but believes an Asian or African would be a good “plot twist”.
Despite the growing speculation and excitement, for the cardinal electors the papal conclave is the serious and sombre process of choosing the next leader of the Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion followers.
Teodorita Giovannella is hoping the next pope will be a fellow Italian
To keep the vote secret, they are locked in the Sistine Chapel which has been swept for hidden cameras, recording equipment and bugs.
The windows are covered to keep the outside world out and to stop drones from spying.
Mobile phones are banned and signal jammers have been installed to help stop any information being leaked.
Ballots are burned after they are cast and a plume of coloured smoke shows people if a new pope has been chosen.
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Preparations inside the Sistine Chapel
The cardinal who is elected will become one of the most powerful men in the world and will set the course for the Catholic Church for years to come, making decisions which will affect the lives of millions of people worldwide.
Pope Francis’ 12-year reign pulled the church in a more progressive direction.
His fight for migrants and climate change made him a muse for Roman street artist Mauro Pallotta.
He met him five times and painted more than 30 pictures of him, celebrating his life on the walls of Rome.
Siobhan Robbins with Rome street artist Mauro Pallotta
One of Mr Pallotta’s artworks of Pope Francis
One shows Francis with a catapult shooting out hearts.
“It depicts the strong love he had for people,” Mr Pallotta explains.
In another, he wears a cape and is depicted as a superhero.
“I hope the new pope continues the way of Pope Francis and remembers the poor people of the world,” he says.
Whether the next pontiff is another pope of the people, a progressive or conservative will soon be decided by the cardinals.
Their choice will determine if the Catholic Church continues down the route set by Francis or takes a different path.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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IDF reservists call for end to war in Gaza
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
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