Nearly 65,000 Rohingya have crossed into southeastern Bangladesh since late last year amid unrest and violence in Rakhine, their home state in neighboring Myanmar, according to newly updated information from Bangladeshi officials.
From a historic but deadly mass uprising to the landslide electoral victory of an ex-general accused of human rights abuses, BenarNews photographers captured moments from the frontlines of major news events in Bangladesh and Southeast Asia in 2024.
Macabre killings, casual torture, misdirection and snooping were part of “the anatomy of enforced disappearances” linked to deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, an inquiry commission said in its first report.
Vanuatu on Wednesday took stock of damage from a powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake that killed at least 14 people and collapsed buildings in the capital, as the first trickle of international assistance began arriving in the disaster-prone Pacific nation.
Baharul Alam, the newly appointed Inspector-General of Police (IGP), said he was ready to sit down with members of the force and discuss their various issues, including the state of their mental health.
Disintegrating relations between Dhaka and New Delhi could grow even worse as India’s government mobilizes political support for ex-Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina, who fled to the neighboring country in August, and her deposed party, analysts warned.
Religious tension surged in Muslim-majority Bangladesh after a Hindu religious leader was denied bail, with a prosecutor hacked to death amid huge protests against the minority leader’s arrest and sharp words between Dhaka and New Delhi.
Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who has spent 14 years on death row in Indonesia, will be coming home but will stay behind bars for the immediate future after being transferred to the custody of Philippine authorities, officials said.
About 740,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine and settled in Bangladesh refugee camps in the months that followed a brutal military crackdown in 2017. Both the insurgents and the junta have kidnapped and forced Rohingya into battle.
With its leaders in jail or fleeing from justice, the party that led Bangladesh to independence and ruled for 15 consecutive years faces an existential crisis after a student uprising toppled the autocratic prime minister in August, analysts say.