Myanmar or Burma

Hunger has reached alarming levels in Myanmar with the situation set to worsen in 2025, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned 29 January.

A staggering 15 million people are expected to face hunger in 2025, up from 13.3 million last year. Those living in active conflict areas, particularly in Chin, Kachin and Rakhine states, as well as Sagaing Region, are experiencing the highest levels of food insecurity in the country.

Almost 20 million people – 1 in 3 – will need humanitarian assistance this year, according to the Myanmar Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan.

This is MAL sucking up to China. He's made Chinese new year an official holiday in Burma.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) claimed in a statement on Monday to have captured two of the military’s artillery battalion bases and an airfield in Bhamo Township, Kachin State after days of fighting.

Healthcare services in refugee camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) were suspended on 27 January 2025, following an order from the new United States (US) President, Donald Trump.

The junta’s amendments to the conscription law introduced on 23 January 2025 have been condemned by political groups and legal experts who warn they will oppress the Myanmar people even more.

The junta introduced 10 new chapters containing 59 new rules and 12 annexes to the conscription law, which it started enforcing on 10 February 2024.

Regime authorities appear to be increasingly abducting young men on the street or during household inspections to boost the number of military conscripts, while families and activists say bribes are no longer enough to free them.

Dr. Nay Soe Maung, the son-in-law of former military dictator Than Shwe, has been handed three years in jail for alleged sedition nearly three months after being detained and tried at a junta court in Mandalay’s Obo Prison.

Chin refugees in Malaysia who were due to go to the United States (US) because their refugee applications had been approved had their flights and visas cancelled by Donald Trump, the new US president.

China and India are competing for their interests in Rakhine State as the Arakan Army (AA) takes increasing control of the strategically important Bay of Bengal coastline.

China reopened all its border crossings to areas of Myanmar controlled by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) after the junta and MNDAA signed a peace deal.

The Arakan Army (AA) and its allies have extended operations from Rakhine State into Ayeyarwady Region and are reportedly 62km northwest of the regional capital, Pathein.

Junta troops have been rapidly retreating since the AA attacked Magyizin on January 5 following the seizure of Gwa Township in southern Rakhine on December 29, according to residents.

The military regime is targeting homeless people in its conscription drive in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, according to residents.

China’s foreign affairs ministry announced on Monday that the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) had agreed to return control of the northern Shan State capital to the Myanmar military regime in a new ceasefire deal.

Representatives of the Myanmar junta and the MNDAA—also commonly called the Kokang army—concluded the ceasefire agreement on Saturday following negotiations mediated by Chinese officials.

The MNDAA is an ethnic armed organisation whose members are mostly Kokang people, a Mandarin-speaking ethnic community native to an area of northern Shan State that borders China’s Yunnan Province.

Although the Chinese ministry’s statement provided few details about the terms of the agreement, sources in Myanmar and China confirmed that the Kokang army’s forces will be required to withdraw from the city of Lashio, northern Shan State, the location of the Myanmar military’s northeastern regional headquarters, by June.

Chinese authorities have been pressuring the MNDAA to withdraw from Lashio and cease hostilities against the Myanmar junta for months, threatening action against the Kokang group’s commanders and throttling the traffic of fuel, medicine, food and other vital supplies to MNDAA-held territories via the Chinese border.

With the ceasefire already in force on Sunday, Chinese authorities opened the border crossing in Chin Shwe Haw, northern Shan State, a town in the MNDAA-controlled territory of Shan State Special Region 1 or the Kokang region of Myanmar, previously designated as the Kokang Self-Administered Zone in Myanmar’s 2008 constitution.

Spokespersons for the United Wa State Party and its armed wing the United Wa State Army—a larger ethnic armed organisation in control of other territories in northern and eastern Shan State—announced on Monday that the Namtit Bridge border checkpoint in Namtit Subtownship had also reopened with permission from Chinese authorities.

In an alleged bid to pressure the Kokang army, Chinese authorities detained MNDAA head Peng Daxun in China, claiming he was undergoing medical treatment when pressed for an explanation. Peng Daxun’s status and whereabouts are still unknown.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/37353879

Over 360 media workers were behind bars in the final month of 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported Thursday, highlighting China and Israel as jailing the highest number.

In its annual census the New York-based organization counted 361 people as being in prison on December 1, 2024, its highest total since 2022, when 370 were counted.

China, Israel, and Myanmar — with 50, 43 and 35 journalists detained, respectively — “emerged as the world’s three worst offenders in another record-setting year for journalists jailed because of their work,” CPJ said.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and allies say they are attacking Myanmar junta troops retreating from Mansi Township, Kachin State, inflicting heavy casualties.

The Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) has announced a crackdown following the abduction of Chinese celebrities as forced labor for scam compounds in areas under its control on the Myanmar-Thai border.

The announcement came during an emergency meeting in Karen State’s Myawaddy on Wednesday between the BGF, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), and local Chinese businessmen.