A rapid expansion in illegal gold mining since the military coup is poisoning the water supply in Myanmar’s Kachin state and destroying the livelihoods of residents who say the ethnic Kachin group that administers the region has failed to police the sector.
Ethnic Chin soldiers claim to have taken control of nearly all of Thantlang township in Chin state, in western Myanmar near India, despite the junta’s recent declaration of martial law in the area, but residents who fled fighting say they cannot return home amid the risk of military airstrikes.
Despite attempts by ASEAN to mediate, according to human rights groups, atrocities are still continuing in Myanmar two years after the military takeover.
More than 2,000 villagers in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region fled ahead of two days of junta raids, the Kyunhla-Kanbalu Activists Group told RFA on Tuesday.
At least 363 women killed by the junta in the two years since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup, according to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).
A 12-hour gunfight and the torching of a refugee settlement along the Banglesh-Myanmar border thrust the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, an old armed insurgent group, back into the spotlight.
Junta leaders placed Myanmar under six more months of emergency rule on Wednesday, the second anniversary of their ouster of the civilian government in a coup, citing ongoing resistance to army rule, junta-controlled media reported.r
Myanmar’s top military leaders dropped hints on Tuesday, the eve of the second anniversary of their overthrow of the civilian government, that they may extend emergency rule, declaring an “extraordinary situation” in light of ongoing resistance to junta rule.
Junta troops have beaten two men and a teenage boy to death after arresting them at a checkpoint in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region, according to locals citing sources close to the military.
Around 10,000 villagers in two townships have abandoned their homes as junta troops continued scorched earth operations in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region, locals told RFA.