Soldiers from the Karen National Liberation Army patrol next to an area destroyed by Myanmar's airstrike in Myawaddy, the Thailand-Myanmar border town under control of a coalition of rebel forces led by the Karen National Union, April 2024.

Myanmar’s military government on Thursday formally applied the designation of terrorist organization to the Karen National Union, a major ethnic rebel group, making virtually any activities connected with it illegal, including contact by third parties.

The group, better known by the initials KNU and located in the country’s southeast, has been fighting on and off for greater autonomy from the central government since Myanmar became independent from Britain in 1948 under the name of Burma.

The KNU has been engaged in especially fierce combat with the

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