Coup, COVID take toll on young people’s mental health in Myanmar

Deaths from violence and disease trigger depression and anxiety among young survivors in Myanmar.

Van Thawng Thawng’s phone buzzed as a series of notifications lit up the screen. “Has anyone spoken to Ezekiel?” someone was asking in the Chin Student Union Facebook group, an organisation representing students from Myanmar’s northwestern Chin state. But no one had heard from the 20-year-old union leader. A week later, on April 14, a friend called Van Thawng Thawng to tell him that Ezekiel’s body had been found.