1 February
POL The military staged a coup (Notification 1/2021) in Naypyitaw and declared a state of emergency for a year, handed over all executive, legislative and judicial powers to MAH, and detained ASSK, President Win Myint, other NLD party leaders, and CSO activists.
2 February
CDM Health workers and civil society started the CDM movement.
5 February
POL NLD lawmakers held an emergency parliamentary session and formed the CRPH to serve as a legitimate Parliament. The CRPH has 20 members, 17 from the NLD.
9 February
VIO Police shot Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing (19) in Naypyidaw, she is the first victim of the coup. She died of her injuries on 19 February.
11 February
INT The US announced sanctions on the junta leaders and several companies.
18 February
INT Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s generals.
27 February
POL Myanmar's UN ambassador was fired by the military a day after he urged the UN to use "any means necessary".
28 February
VIO The deadliest crackdown thus far, killing 18 protesters in a single day.
2 March
POL The military replaced the Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the UN Kyaw Moe Tun with Tin Maung Naing, who resigned the next day and said Kyaw Moe Tun would continue to represent the country.
8 March
EXM The military banned independent media: DVB, 7Day News, Mizzima, Myanmar Now, and Khit Thit Media. Soldiers raided Myanmar Now’s office in Yangon, seizing computers (the first media outlet to be raided).
14 March
VIO Chinese factories were set on fire in Hlaing Tharyar and Shwepyithar townships in Yangon.
22 March
INT The EU imposed sanctions (first round) on 11 individuals linked to the coup.
1 April
INT The UNSC suggested sanctioning the junta, with China and Russia blocking the attempt. In reaction, protesters called for the shut Chinese Embassy in Yangon.
16 April
POL The CRPH formed the National Unity Government (NUG), a government-in-exile, which includes 26 ousted lawmakers, members of ethnic minority groups, and anti-coup figures.
24 April
INT ASEAN’s Special Meeting on Myanmar in Jakarta: released a “5 Points of Consensus”. Pro-democracy activists fiercely rejected the agreement.
5 May
POL The NUG set up the People’s Defence Force (PDF) as a precursor to the Federal Democratic Armed Forces. Ordinary civilians all around the country began forming local PDF groups.
18 June
INT The UNGA adopted a (non-binding) resolution by a vote of 119 countries denouncing the Myanmar military. 36 countries abstained (Thailand, China, Russia) and 1 voted against (Belarus). It was only the 4th time since the end of the Cold War that the UNGA had passed a resolution condemning a military coup, and was a rare occasion in which the body also called for an arms embargo.
8 July
ECN Telenor sold its Myanmar business to the regime-linked Lebanese M1 Group, added to the Burma Campaign UK’s Dirty List in 2019, for just US$105 million (before the coup valued at several billion dollars) due to the junta’s recent demand to install software that would give security forces real-time access to users’ phone calls, SMS and data traffic (like state-owned MPT and military-linked Mytel are already doing).
1 August
POL MAH took on a new title as Prime Minister of the newly formed caretaker government (replacing the SAC) and extended the state of emergency until new multi-party elections by August 2023 and promised cooperation with any special envoy named by the ASEAN.
7 September
POL NUG President Duwa Lashi La announced the D-Day - people’s resistance war against the junta - and urged the public across the country to revolt against the military regime (the NUG itself did not appear to have significantly scaled up its capacity to wage war). The NUG declared a state of emergency and announced (more symbolic than anything) that all ministries under the military government were shut down. While there aren’t any nationwide, coordinated attacks yet, the announcement has seemingly emboldened guerrilla fighters to escalate assassinations and bomb attacks.
16 October
INT ASEAN decided not to invite MAH to the Oct. 26-28 summit in Brunei after the bloc’s Special Envoy to Myanmar was denied permission to meet all stakeholders in Myanmar’s crisis. ASEAN will be inviting only a “non-political actor” from Myanmar (that the military can choose).
24 December
VIO Massacre in Kayah state (35 people killed, tortured, burnt by the the military