Twenty-six members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority drowned when their boat capsized as they were trying to flee to Bangladesh, witnesses said, an accident likely to compound fears that the largely Muslim minority is facing a new round of genocide.
Landmines and unexploded ordnance are posing a greater threat to residents of western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where intense fighting has caused junta troops to lay more landmines near their outposts.
The rebel Arakan Army fighting Myanmar’s military junta on Monday captured an outpost on the country’s border with Bangladesh, killing 30 soldiers and capturing three more, sources told Radio Free Asia.
Hundreds of people were waiting to cross into Bangladesh from Myanmar, a small group of newly arrived Rohingya told BenarNews, amid fierce fighting close to the border that has sparked diplomatic protests over reports of artillery and mortar shells landing in Bangladeshi territory
Renewed fighting between Myanmar regime forces and the Arakan Army has intensified in Rakhine and Chin states with at least 10 clashes since July 18, following the dissolution of a fragile cease-fire that had held for a year and a half, residents of the western states told RFA
Nine members of an extended family from a village in Maungdaw township were traveling home from a Buddhist alms-giving ceremony when their vehicle hit the mine. Kyaw Ye Aung, 25, his wife Aye Sann Nu, 20, and their son Kyaw Hsan Oo, 3 were killed, while four severely injured family members were taken to a hospital in the state capital Sittwe on Wednesday
On Friday, the last day of the two-month-long political campaign period, some 300 ballots submitted at one polling state during the advanced voting were declared null and void after election officials discovered check marks for a local party already stamped on 14 ballots
More than 60,000 civilians in the Burmese State of Chin are currently facing a severe food shortage due to the ongoing fighting between the national army and the Arakan Army rebels
The arrests come as Myanmar’s military is increasingly using the country’s Counter-Terrorism Law to prosecute civilians and local officials for alleged ties to the rebel force. The army has been stepping up its offensives a 17-month-long campaign to crush the AA’s armed drive for greater autonomy for ethnic Rakhines in the state
Nearly 10,000 displaced villagers in Chin’s remote Paletwa township are in urgent need of shelter before the start of the annual monsoon season later this month, with local officials pledging to build modest bamboo structures for them