Tag: Myanmar

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday blacklisted a Myanmar militia group, its leader Saw Chit Thu and his two sons for facilitating cyber scams from territory they control on the Thai-Myanmar border. The Karen National Army, or KNA, formerly known as the Karen Border Guard, was designated as a “significant transnational criminal organization” that is barred from holding property in the United States and conducting transactions with U.S. persons. The two other individuals affected by the action are Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit, who are sons of…

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. An ethnic army that has been fighting a 10-year battle against Myanmar’s military in Shan state said it refused a request from the junta to hand back captured territory despite joint pressure from the military regime and China. The Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA has captured 12 towns in the eastern state and others in Mandalay region, including the ruby-rich town of Mogok. The TNLA, the armed branch of the Palaung State Liberation Front, said its representatives were invited to several…

In conflict-hit zones on the eastern and western border regions of Myanmar, health workers are reporting rising cases of tuberculosis and other diseases amid global aid cuts from the U.S and other international donors. Myanmar had meager investment in the health sector, even before the military seized power in a coup four years ago, triggering widespread fighting. Strain on the system has intensified with a 7.7 magnitude earthquake on March 28 that killed more than 3,800 people. Drastic cutbacks by the Trump administration at the Agency for International Development, or…

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. The Independent Myanmar Journalists Association is calling for the release of a reporter who was sentenced to five years in prison under counter-terrorism laws by the junta, the group’s spokesperson said in a statement. Than Htike Myint, a journalist from Myaelatt Athan News Agency, is one of hundreds of reporters arrested since the military coup in 2021. The ensuing crackdown on free speech prompted the junta to charge journalists working for independent media outlets with terrorism and incitement, crimes widely criticized by…

Myanmar’s junta chief told workers to find jobs domestically rather than abroad, citing a labor shortage, despite the country’s severe economic downturn and poor working conditions, the military said on Thursday. Since the 2021 coup, job opportunities and economic security in Myanmar have plummeted due to dwindling foreign investment, worsening labor rights and crackdowns on union activity. Conscription and low wages have also driven millions of Myanmar workers to countries like Thailand, prompting unpopular junta policies such as forced remittances, heavy taxes and stricter repatriation efforts – pushing many to…

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…