Myanmar's junta is already facing an "existential threat" but the world could help end its "nightmare" rule with coordinated sanctions, the UN special rapporteur on the country said yesterday.

Mass casualties among junta forces, as well as defections, surrenders, and recruitment challenges have led to dwindling troop numbers, posing "an existential threat for the Myanmar military", said Tom Andrews.

"Those who have bet on the junta to restore order and stability in Myanmar have made a losing bet," he said.

The junta came to power in the February 2021 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected government, ending a 10-year experiment with democracy and plunging the Southeast Asian nation into bloody turmoil.

The junta is struggling to crush resistance to its rule by long-established ethnic rebel groups and newer pro-democracy People's Defence Forces.