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BANGKOK, Thailand, March 19, 2024 (AFP) – United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has said he is “alarmed” by reports of ongoing Myanmar military air strikes on villages in Rakhine state, where locals told AFP more than 20 people were killed on Monday. Clashes have rocked Myanmar’s western Rakhine state since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked security forces in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the military’s 2021 coup. Guterres is “alarmed by […]
GENEVA, March 1, 2024 (AFP) – Three years of military rule in Myanmar have inflicted unbearable cruelty, leaving people trapped in an unending nightmare as the conflict spreads, the UN human rights chief said Friday. The junta is crushing all forms of dissent with total impunity, Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council, urging the United Nations’ top rights body and countries to focus on preventing further atrocities. “The human rights situation in Myanmar […]
Myanmar’s ruling military junta has “doubled down” on civilian attacks while showing signs of becoming “increasingly desperate” by imposing military service, the UN special rapporteur on the country said Wednesday. Earlier this month, the military said it would enforce a law allowing it to call up all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve for at least two years, as it struggles to quell opposition to its 2021 coup. “While wounded and increasingly […]
NEW YORK, Feb 21, 2024 (AFP) – US authorities said Wednesday they had charged a member of the Japanese yakuza criminal underworld with handling nuclear material sourced from Myanmar and seeking to sell it to fund an illicit arms deal. According to a superseding indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court, yakuza leader Takeshi Ebisawa and co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri had previously been charged in April 2022 with drug trafficking and firearms offenses, and both were remanded. […]
YANGON, Myanmar, Feb 10, 2024 (AFP) – Myanmar’s junta is enforcing a law allowing the military to summon all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve for at least two years, it said on Saturday, as it struggles to crush opposition to its 2021 coup. The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the military takeover in February of that year, which ended a ten-year experiment with democracy and sparked mass protests […]
YANGON, Myanmar, Feb 1, 2024 (AFP) – Myanmar on Thursday entered its fourth year since a coup snuffed out a short-lived dance with democracy, with the embattled junta warning it will do “whatever it takes” to crush opposition to its rule. The junta extended a state of emergency by six months on the eve of the anniversary, once again delaying promised elections, with a fresh round of US sanctions announced hours later. In the early […]
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Feb 1, 2024 (AFP) – A boat believed to be carrying over 100 Rohingya refugees landed in Indonesia’s westernmost province on Thursday, a UN official said, part of the biggest influx into the Muslim-majority country since 2015. The mostly Muslim Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar, and thousands risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. UN Refugee […]
BEIJING, Jan 4, 2024 (AFP) – Beijing on Thursday voiced “strong dissatisfaction” that fighting in neighbouring Myanmar had caused Chinese casualties and said it would take “all necessary measures” to protect its citizens, following reports an artillery shell had exploded across the border. Armed conflict has raged in Myanmar’s northern Shan state since October, when an alliance of ethnic minority groups launched an offensive against the military junta. Several Chinese media outlets reported on Wednesday […]
NAMHSAN, Myanmar, Dec 30, 2023 (AFP) – A squad of Myanmar pro-democracy fighters works quickly to ready drones for an attack on a nearby military base, the latest target in a wave of aerial assaults that has helped turn the war against the junta. The team stood back as one contraption named “Bomber VIII” carrying a new six-kilogram explosive soared over a line of trees. “The military position is four kilometres away from us,” said […]
YANGON, Myanmar, Dec 28, 2023 (AFP) – China’s embassy in Myanmar on Thursday asked its citizens to leave a northern district along the countries’ shared border, citing heightened security risks as ethnic minority armed groups battle the junta. Fighting has raged across Myanmar’s northern Shan state since October, when the so-called “Three Brotherhood Alliance” of ethnic minority groups launched an offensive against the military. The alliance has seized several towns and border hubs vital for […]
GENEVA, Dec 23, 2023 (AFP) – The United Nations called Saturday for the urgent rescue of 185 people, mainly women and children, on a distressed boat last heard to be near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean. Around 70 of those onboard are children and 88 are women, the UNHCR refugee agency said in a statement. “At least a dozen are feared to be in critical condition with one individual reported to […]
BANGKOK (AFP) – Ethnic minority fighters battling Myanmar’s junta said Saturday they seized a trading hub in Shan state, days after China said it had mediated a temporary ceasefire. Clashes have raged across Myanmar’s northern Shan state since the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) launched a joint offensive late October. The three allied groups — known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance — say […]
