NUG documents over 135,000 conscripts drafted into Myanmar military due to high attrition

Southwest Regional Military Commander Aung Kyaw Khaing hands supplies to conscripts of intake No. 26 at a military sports hall in Pathein, Ayeyarwady Region, on June 27. (Credit : Regime media)

The National Unity Government (NUG) announced on Friday that it has documented around 135,080 males in Myanmar which have been drafted into military service over the last 27 intakes since the regime in Naypyidaw enforced its conscription law on Feb. 10, 2024. “The forced recruitment of young people to extend the military dictatorship has become a major means of sustaining the regime,” the NUG stated on Sept. 18.

Known officially as “People’s Military Service Law,” the conscription law requires both males aged 18-35 and females aged 18-27 to serve up to two years, while specialists like doctors aged up to 45 must serve for three years. The NUG added that “mostly conscripts” were among the 20,383 regime troops killed and 9,792 wounded between July 2024 and August 2026. But no exact number of conscripts killed in battle was shared.

It added that 3,874 soldiers had defected and around 20,000 had deserted from the military. To date, the regime continues to deny it is recruiting females under the conscription law. Confidential military sources reported that a second intake of female conscripts was receiving military training at a facility in Hmawbi Township, Yangon Region, on Aug. 10. 

This information comes after the Myanmar Defence and Security Institute (MDSI), a research network established by former military personnel that defected to the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) following the 2021 military coup, shared information from confidential sources that the first intake of female conscripts was trained at the same facility one year before, in August 2025.

Regime spokesperson Khaing Khaing Soe rejected any allegations that females were receiving military training under the conscription law on Aug. 11. She maintained that voluntary courses aimed at recruiting enlisted soldiers, non-commissioned officers, and officers are separate from the conscription law and that no females have been conscripted under the law.

The NUG Ministry of Defence claimed in the Sept. 18 statement that over 500 male conscripts had been captured as prisoners of war since the end of 2025. This could not be independently verified by DVB, but residents and sources in Ayeyarwaddy Region and Kachin State told DVB that conscripts were being deployed to conflict zones with little to no military training.