The leader of Myanmar’s military junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, on Monday was appointed the country’s interim president following the medical leave of figurehead leader Myint Swe, as reported by state media.
According to CNN, Government broadcaster MRTV announced, “The Interim President’s Office has sent a letter to the State Administration Council Office notifying it to delegate the responsibilities,” referring to the governing junta council chaired by Hlaing.
Swe, aged 73, has been experiencing “psychomotor retardation” and “malnutrition” since early 2023, according to a report by the state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar on Friday.
The report continued, “As he cannot do normal daily activities including eating food, close medical treatments are being provided for the Pro Tem President under the arrangement of the State Administration Council.”
Swe was appointed as the acting president after the February 2021 military coup, which led to the imprisonment of civilian leaders, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and the installation of military loyalists.
The junta initially pledged to hold elections within two years after seizing power, but this deadline has been repeatedly extended. The current state of emergency is set to expire in July.
The Ministry of Information in Myanmar did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Since the coup, the military has been engaged in a brutal civil war with various local militias and pro-democracy groups, resulting in substantial losses of territory and troops for the junta.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, stated in June that the junta has intensified its deadly aerial attacks on civilian targets by “fivefold” in the past six months, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis as it attempts to “scare” civilians into ceasing resistance.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that at least 18.6 million people in Myanmar currently require urgent humanitarian assistance.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in its 2024 Myanmar response plan, warned, “Escalating conflict across Myanmar is driving growing humanitarian needs, surging displacement, worsening food insecurity, grave human rights violations and deadly protection threats to civilians.”
The plan emphasized that humanitarian efforts are severely underfunded and stated, “Without an urgent injection of funds aid agencies will soon be forced to make impossible choices about cuts to planned assistance that will risk the lives of millions of people in severe need.”
Myanmar, located in Southeast Asia, is bordered by China to the north and northeast, Laos and Thailand to the east and southeast, the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to the south, and Bangladesh and India to the west.
