Protesters march in Myanmar after deadliest day since coup

Anti-coup demonstrators in Myanmar returned to the streets on Thursday following the deadliest day of protests since the military took control, with at least 38 people killed by security forces on Wednesday.

Protests against the military coup have not stopped in Myanmar’s largest cities such as Yangon and Mandalay, The Associated Press reports. Christine Schraner Burgener, United Nations special envoy for Myanmar, said on Wednesday that 38 people had been killed. More than 50 protesters have been killed since the Feb. 1 coup.

The U.N. Security Council has planned a meeting to address the growing military violence in the country, the AP notes. But according to Schraner Burgener, the military junta appears to remain undaunted.

Schraner Burgener said she told Myanmar’s military that the international community “might take huge strong measures,” according to the AP.

“And the answer was, ‘We are used to sanctions and we survived those sanctions in the past,’” Schrader said.

“We have to learn to walk with only a few friends,” the military reportedly responded when Schrader advised that Myanmar risked isolation from other nations.

President Biden has imposed multiple sanctions against generals in the nation, their families and businesses tied to the military.

“A strong and unified message emerging from the United States has been essential, in our view, to encouraging other countries to join us and pressing for an immediate return to democracy,” Biden said in a statement regarding Myanmar.

Both the United Kingdom and Canada have also imposed sanctions against the generals in response to its military crackdown on protesters, a Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed.