Tag: Myanmar

Junta aerial attacks in an embattled region of northwest Myanmar killed eight people and injured dozens more, residents told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday. The country’s Sagaing region is the epicenter of both insurgent movements against the military that seized control over the country in a 2021 coup and the recent 7.7 magnitude earthquake that killed thousands. It is home to towns and villages frequently targeted by junta soldiers for raids, arson, mass arrests and bombings. The military regime’s air force dropped 47 bombs on Kale township’s Nat Chaung, Nat…

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Clashes between Myanmar’s junta and an ethnic army in central Myanmar have forced more than 4,000 people from their homes, according to a statement by the Karen National Union, or KNU. The political wing of the Karen National Liberation Army has been feuding with junta forces in eastern Myanmar’s Kayin and Mon states since the military seized power in a 2021 coup. The conflict has now spread westwards into the Bago region. In Shwegyin township, villagers from more than 850 households fled…

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Some families have waited one month, hoping to receive critical aid in the aftermath of Myanmar’s earthquake, which killed over 3,700 people, victims and aid groups told Radio Free Asia. Myanmar’s military has been accused of hampering aid efforts by preventing international and local rescue groups from entering earthquake-stricken areas and demanding that groups distribute essential items like food and temporary shelter through junta officials. One resident in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city and close to the epicenter of the earthquake, said…

Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese. In the nearly three weeks since Myanmar’s military declared a ceasefire to assist earthquake recovery, it has dropped more than 400 bombs on Rakhine state, according to an insurgent army in the country’s embattled west. The state is home to one of Myanmar’s largest and most powerful ethnic rebel groups, the Arakan Army, or AA. It has seen escalating conflict in all 17 of its townships since Myanmar’s junta seized power from the country’s democratically-elected government in 2021. “Instead of honoring their…

Four weeks after a devastating earthquake in central Myanmar, a local charity has retrieved dust-covered backpacks, water bottles and lunch boxes from the rubble of “Bright Kids” pre-school in Sagaing city and returned those belongings to tearful parents. Bright Kids had about 20 children attending when the 7.7 magnitude quake struck on March 28, killing more than 3,700 people. Seven children and one teacher died when the school collapsed. myanmar-earthquake-school Workers retrieve children’s belongings at a destroyed pre-school in Sagaing city, Myanmar, on April 24, 2025, four weeks after Myanmar’s…

Myanmar’s junta announced that it will extend its 20-day ceasefire until April 30 to aid in the country’s earthquake recovery, state-run broadcaster MRTV reported. A devastating magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck near Mandalay on March 28, resulting in over 3,700 deaths and injuring more than 5,000 people. In response to the disaster, the junta announced a temporary ceasefire to facilitate relief efforts. The exiled civilian National Unity Government, or NUG, and several ethnic armed groups declared similar pauses in hostilities. However, such ceasefires have offered little protection to civilians as military…

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Myanmar’s junta re-entered a northern city near the Chinese border on Tuesday abandoned by a rebel army after months of occupation, residents told Radio Free Asia. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, is one of many insurgent groups fighting the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup for autonomy and democracy. It controls parts of northern Shan state and until recently, the long-embattled town of Lashio. Frequent conflict and airstrikes have forced much of the population to flee and…

Read RFA coverage of these topics in Burmese. A three-day onslaught of junta-launched airstrikes across four major areas spanning much of Myanmar’s central plains killed 50 people and injured nearly 80, sources told Radio Free Asia. Myanmar’s junta, which seized power in 2021, faces resistance from dozens of militias seeking autonomy. In response to insurgent attacks, the military has bombed villages suspected of sheltering rebels, often killing dozens of civilians. In the latest assaults, the junta killed 20 people in Singu township’s Kyi Tauk Pauk village and Thabeikkyin township’s Leik…

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Myanmar’s exiled civilian government held a meeting with the chair of the regional bloc ASEAN for the first time, amid mounting international pressure over the bloc’s engagement with the war-torn country’s military regime. The virtual talks between delegates from the National Unity Government, or NUG, and Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian Prime Minister who also serves as the bloc’s chair, focused on Myanmar’s worsening humanitarian crisis, compounded by ongoing civil conflict as well as a recent devastating earthquake, according to the NUG. “What…

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese UPDATED April 17, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. ET BANGKOK – Myanmar’s junta chief held talks in Thailand on Thursday with Malaysia’s prime minister that were expected to focus on peace efforts and quake relief as his military government released almost 5,000 prisoners for its Buddhist New Year’s amnesty. Only about 100 political prisoners were freed in the amnesty, an activist group said. Prominent political detainees – such as former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – remain behind bars or under house…