Tag: Myanmar

Chinese city on Myanmar border locked down again over virus fears

  BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese city near the border with Myanmar has imposed a lockdown and started mass testing after three coronavirus cases were reported on Monday, with officials rushing to curb another outbreak. It is the second time in four months that Ruili, home to more than 210,000 people, has been locked down after the discovery of cases imported from Myanmar. Ruili is a major crossing point from Muse in neighbouring Myanmar, […]

25 killed in Myanmar clashes between army and anti-junta fighters

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Twenty-five anti-junta fighters and civilians were killed during clashes with the military in central Myanmar, villagers said Sunday, as locals increasingly take up arms against the regime in the coup-wracked country. Myanmar has been in turmoil since a February coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, with 890 people killed in a junta crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group. In some areas civilians have formed “defence forces” […]

Myanmar orders 2 million to stay home as Covid-19 cases spike

  YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) – Myanmar authorities imposed stay-at-home-measures on the country’s second city Friday as coronavirus cases in the coup-wracked country surge, with many health workers striking to protest against the junta. Inhabitants of Mandalay, as well as two townships in the southern Bago region woke up to new restrictions banning more than one person leaving home for non-medical reasons. There was no timeframe given for the new rules, announced by the health and […]

Myanmar violence escalates with rise of ‘self-defence’ groups: report

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Violence in post-coup Myanmar has escalated as anti-junta “self-defense” forces step up to take on the military, a report said Monday, warning of an “enormous” human cost if the regime uses its full power in subsequent crackdowns. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the February coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, with more than 880 killed in a junta crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group. In […]

Myanmar junta hits Suu Kyi with graft charges

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — The Myanmar junta has hit deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi with corruption charges over claims she accepted illegal payments of gold and more than half a million dollars in cash, state media reported Thursday. The country has been in turmoil since the generals ousted Suu Kyi on February 1, with nearly 850 civilians killed in a brutal crackdown by security forces on near-daily protests against the coup. The 75-year-old […]

Trial of Myanmar’s Suu Kyi to begin next week

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (AFP) — The trial of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi will begin next week, her lawyer told AFP Monday, with the Nobel laureate facing an eclectic raft of charges, from possessing unlicensed walkie-talkies to flouting coronavirus restrictions during last year’s election campaign. Myanmar has been in uproar since Suu Kyi was ousted in a February 1 coup, with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement. Almost 850 people have been […]

ASEAN envoys in Myanmar for talks with junta chief

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Envoys from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations arrived in Myanmar Thursday for talks with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, as the coup-stricken nation enters its fifth month of crippling unrest. Myanmar has been in chaos and its economy paralysed since the February coup, with more than 800 people killed in a brutal military crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group. Erywan Pehin Yusof, Brunei’s second minister for foreign […]

School’s out for Myanmar students defying junta threats

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Schools in Myanmar will open on Tuesday for the first time since the military seized power, but teachers and students are set to defy the junta’s calls for full classrooms in a show of resistance. Four months of national turmoil have followed the February ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with more than 800 people killed by security forces and a nationwide strike crippling the economy. Public school teachers […]

Myanmar journalist to seek asylum in Spain

MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Myanmar correspondent Mratt Kyaw Thu will arrive in Madrid on Tuesday to ask for asylum after fleeing the military junta in Yangon, said the Spanish news agency EFE, which he worked for. The 30-year-old correspondent, who will travel to Spain after failing to obtain asylum in Germany, won AFP’s Kate Webb award in 2017 for his outstanding coverage of the ethnic and religious conflicts in Myanmar. “Tomorrow he will fly from […]

Millions in Myanmar struggle to buy food as coup price hike bites

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Aye Mar sits with her seven children in their Yangon kitchen and worries whether their meal of rice and stringy vegetables — all she can afford in coup-stricken Myanmar — will satisfy their hunger. The national economy and banking system have been paralyzed since a military power-grab which pushed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi out of office in February. Livelihoods have been lost after strikes and factory closures, fuel prices […]

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi defiant in first comments since coup

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said her ousted party would “exist as long as the people exist” during her first in-person court appearance since a February coup, her lawyer told AFP Monday. Since the February 1 putsch, Myanmar has been in uproar with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement, with more than 800 killed by the military, according to a local monitoring group. “We met with Amay […]

Police and soldiers killed in eastern Myanmar amid heavy fighting

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Dozens of Myanmar security force members were killed Sunday, rebel fighters said, after heavy fighting in the coup-hit country’s eastern fringe. Myanmar has been in chaos since the February putsch, as the military uses lethal force to crack down on dissent. The civilian death toll has climbed to at least 815 people, according to a local monitoring group. The violence has pushed some in the anti-junta movement to form a so-called […]