Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. An insurgent army in northern Myanmar publicly executed five convicted criminals, including a Chinese citizen, residents told Radio Free Asia on Friday. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, is one of Shan state’s largest ethnic organizations. It has been fighting for territory since a military junta took power in a 2021 coup, and has largely administered its own justice in the territory, occasionally publicly executing criminals. “One Chinese and four Burmese were shot at the airport, all five were given…
Tag: Myanmar
Junta airstrikes in Myanmar’s northwest kill dozens in a single night
Read RFA coverage of these topics in Burmese. Junta airstrikes in northwestern Myanmar killed more than 30 civilians, including an entire family, residents and officials told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. Despite a junta-declared ceasefire on April 2 following a devastating earthquake in central Myanmar, clashes have continued between military troops and rebel militias that have claimed increasing amounts of territory following the country’s 2021 coup. On Wednesday evening, airstrikes on northern Sagaing region’s Wuntho township resulted in heavy civilian casualties, said Nay Bone Latt, a spokesperson for exiled National…
Volunteer groups pause quake aid in Myanmar citing junta restrictions
Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Junta restrictions on aid activities following central Myanmar’s devastating 7.7 earthquake have driven some to postpone aid efforts, despite many communities being in critical need of support, volunteers told Radio Free Asia. Junta authorities have been accused of blocking search and rescue teams and aid groups from entering affected areas in Sagaing and Mandalay regions, as well as Shan state, by using security checkpoints and strict registration requirements. “They [aid groups] can’t do anything. We’re very upset that those who could help…
Insurgent groups seize two major towns in Myanmar’s northwest: sources
Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. A rebel army and allied forces near Myanmar’s northwestern border with India have seized towns that were previously under the junta control, sources told Radio Free Asia. The Chin Brotherhood captured Chin state’s second largest town of Falam, located near the border of Mizoram state in India, according to residents. The rebel group, which is comprised of six allied Chin insurgent armies, began attacks on Falam on Nov. 5, 2024 and seized the junta’s remaining Battalion 268 on Monday. “We’re continuing clearance…
Myanmar: is the junta’s grip on power weakening and what next for its leadership?
Myanmar’s military junta is on the brink of losing control of a major trading town, Myawaddy, on its eastern border with Thailand, after soldiers defending the position surrendered in recent days, according to opposition groups. This is the latest in a series of defeats for the junta, which has also lost crucial territory along its border with China and India, as well as areas of Rakhine state, in the west of the country. These defeats aren’t just economic or strategic blows for the junta – they’re also a humiliation for…
Xi Jinping is playing deadly games with Myanmar and North Korea | Observer editorial
Instead of acting as a responsible superpower, China is putting millions of lives at risk in the region and beyond Military coups and dictatorships rarely come to any good. But has any army takeover in recent times led to more utterly disastrous consequences than those suffered by the people of Myanmar since February 2021? For sheer, vicious stupidity and criminality, Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the junta chief, and his bloodstained associates take some beating. Yet a beating is what they are getting at the hands of Myanmar’s civilian resistance groups,…
Myanmar hands over junta-backed warlords to China in telecoms scam case
Myanmar has extradited 10 people, including notorious warlords, to China, where they are wanted for their alleged role in running abusive online and telephone fraud centres in which tens of thousands of foreign nationals are trapped and forced to run scams. The centres – which target people in China as well as in other countries – have flourished since the Covid-19 pandemic and China says about 44,000 people have been involved, including victims of human trafficking. The Chinese embassy in Myanmar on Tuesday named six of the people who had…
Myanmar junta and armed rebels agree ceasefire
Myanmar’s military and an alliance of armed ethnic minority groups have announced a China-mediated ceasefire after months of conflict that has posed the biggest threat to the junta since it seized power in 2021. Fighting has claimed hundreds of lives and displaced more than half a million people since October, when the alliance launched an offensive against the junta. The alliance has seized several towns and border hubs in Myanmar’s northern Shan state that are vital for trade with China, a major arms supplier and ally of the military. “With…
7 Months Inside an Online Scam Labor Camp
Neo Lu had been looking forward to starting his lucrative new job as a translator. But from the moment he arrived, he knew something was off. He hadn’t been hired. He had been kidnapped and forced to work for an abusive online scam operation. Only by understanding how it worked could he hope to escape. He had been promised a generous salary. A better work-life balance. A chance to live in the vibrant metropolis of Bangkok. His fluency in English would be put to good use as a translator for…
China, Myanmar and now Darfur … the horror of genocide is here again | Simon Tisdall
It’s happening again. In Darfur, scene of a genocide that killed 300,000 people and displaced millions 20 years ago, armed militias are on the rampage once more. Now, as then, they are targeting ethnic African tribes, murdering, raping and stealing with impunity. “They” are nomadic, ethnic Arab raiders, the much-feared “devils on horseback” – except now they ride in trucks. They’re called the Janjaweed. And they’re back. How is it possible such horrors can be repeated? The world condemned the 2003 slaughter. The UN and the International Criminal Court (ICC)…