Myanmar junta plans mandatory military service, media says

Myanmar’s ruling military plans to call up young people for mandatory service from April and also require retired security personnel to serve, media reports cited a junta spokesman as saying, as the army struggles to crush an anti-junta insurgency.

The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since the military seized power from an elected government in a 2021 coup and plans by the junta to call up more people to fight point to the military being under growing pressure.

Last Saturday, Myanmar’s junta declared a law governing mandatory military service would be enforced for men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 for up to two years. On Tuesday, it said this would begin in April.