People prepare to release a hot air balloon during a competition to mark the Tazaungdaing lighting festival Thursday, November 14, 2024, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (Photo by Aung Shine Oo/AP Photo(





Fireworks are exploded from a hot air balloon during a competition to mark the Tazaungtine lighting festival Thursday, November 14, 2024, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (Photo by Aung Shine Oo/AP Photo)





Buddhist devotees light candles during the full moon day of Tazaungmone, also known as lighting festival, at a pagoda Friday, November 15, 2024, in Yangon, Myanmar. (Photo by Aung Shine Oo/AP Photo)





Buddhist nuns collect alms on a sreet in Yangon on November 28, 2024. (Photo by Sai Aung Main/AFP Photo)





Ethnic Karen men climb a greased pole during the Karen New Year's celebration in Yangon, Myanmar, 30 December 2024. The Karen communities in Myanmar and worldwide celebrate the Karen New Year on the first day of the lunar month of Pyatho, the 10th month of the Myanmar calendar. (Photo by Nyein Chan Naing/EPA)





Released prisoners, in a bus, are welcomed by family members and colleagues after they left Insein Prison Saturday, January 4, 2025, in Yangon, Myanmar, as the military government has released more than 6,000 prisoners and has reduced other inmates’ sentences as part of a mass amnesty to mark the 77th anniversary of independence from Britain. (Photo by Thein Zaw/AP Photo)





Fishermen on a boat haul in their net on the Yangon river amid heavy air pollution in Yangon on January 25, 2025. (Photo by Sai Aung Main/AFP Photo)





People burn incense as they pray at a Chinese temple in the Chinatown area of Yangon on January 29, 2025, on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Snake. (Photo by Sai Aung Main/AFP Photo)





A military band marches during a ceremony to mark Myanmar's 78th anniversary of Union Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, February 12, 2025. (Photo by Aung Shine Oo/AP Photo)





This photo taken on February 10, 2025 shows displaced residents working in an illegal poppy field for their livelihood during the fighting between Myanmar's military and KNDF (Karenni Nationalities Defence Force) in Pekon Township, on the border of Karen State and southern Shan State. Myanmar in 2024 became the world's largest producer of opium, harvesting 1,080 tons of the narcotic – more than double that of previous leader Afghanistan. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)





Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar, are stuck in limbo at a compound inside the KK Park, a fraud factory, and a human trafficking hub on the border with Thailand-Myanmar after a multinational crackdown on the compounds run by criminal gangs, operated by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) in Myawaddy, Myanmar, on February 26, 2025. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)





Buddhist nuns watch a parade during a Novitiation Ceremony at the Hlegu Township in Yangon on March 15, 2025. (Photo by Sai Aung Main/AFP Photo)





Damaged pagodas are seen after earthquake Friday, March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (Photo by Aung Shine Oo/AP Photo)





Cars pass a damaged road in Naypyidaw on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake in central Myanmar. A powerful earthquake rocked central Myanmar on March 28, buckling roads in capital Naypyidaw, damaging buildings and forcing people to flee into the streets in neighbouring Thailand. (Photo by Sai Aung Main/AFP Photo)





A car is crushed under a collapsed building in Mandalay on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake in central Myanmar. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)





Women walk past debris in the National Museum in Naypyidaw on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake in central Myanmar. (Photo by Sai Aung Main/AFP Photo)





An earthquake survivor is carried as she waits to receive medical attention at a hospital in Naypyidaw on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake in central Myanmar. (Photo by Sai Aung Main/AFP Photo)





Women react outside the National Museum in Naypyidaw on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake in central Myanmar. A powerful earthquake hit Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand on March 28, turning a major hospital in the Burmese capital into a “mass casualty area” and trapping dozens of workers in an under-construction skyscraper in Bangkok. (Photo by Sebastien Berger/AFP Photo)





Medical workers transport an earthquake casualty in the compound of a hospital in Naypyidaw on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake in central Myanmar. (Photo by Sai Aung Main/AFP Photo)





People drive on a motorbike past a collapsed building in Mandalay on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake in central Myanmar. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)