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Hundreds feared dead after cyclone hits western Myanmar

A view of the damage in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha in Kyauktaw, Rakhine, Myanmar on 15th May, 2023

Updated: 7:15am, 17th May, 2023 (AEST) Reuters Hundreds of people, including Rohingya Muslims, were feared dead after a cyclone struck Myanmar at the weekend, residents and aid groups said on Tuesday, with rescue efforts hampered by damage to infrastructure. Myanmar’s impoverished Rakhine State bore the brunt of Cyclone Mocha, during which winds of up to […]

Rohingya recount stories of hunger and desperation in escape to Indonesia

Indonesia Pidie Rohingya2

Pidie, Indonesia Reuters Rohingya Muslims who survived a harrowing 40 days on a boat across the Indian Ocean to end up in Indonesia have recounted stories of hunger and desperation, saying more than 20 of those on board died on the way. A boat that washed ashore in Indonesia’s Aceh province on the island of […]

Russia, China, Myanmar recommended for State Department list of religious freedom violators

US USCIRF report 2021

RNS A religious freedom watchdog is urging the State Department to name four additional countries to its list of the worst religious liberty offenders. In its 2021 annual report, released on Wednesday, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said India, Russia, Syria and Vietnam should be considered “countries of particular concern.” Those nations have been […]

‘Sesame Street’ unveils Rohingya Muppets to help refugee children

Sesame Street Bert and Ernie

Dhaka, Bangladesh Thomson Reuters Foundation Children’s TV show Sesame Street has unveiled its first Rohingya Muppets to help thousands of refugee children overcome trauma and tackle the pandemic’s impact in the world’s largest refugee settlement in Bangladesh. Six-year-old twins, Noor and Aziz Yasmin, will feature alongside the show’s famous characters like Elmo and Louie in […]

More children wed, risk trafficking in Rohingya camps in pandemic – UN

Women in Rohingya refugee camp Coxs Bazaar

Dhaka, Bangladesh Thomson Reuters Foundation Child marriage is on the rise in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps and the risk of human trafficking grows with every day the pandemic shuts youth services, according to a UN-led study that was released on Thursday. Bangladesh scaled back activities in the refugee camps in April and mainly focused on […]

EU Parliament suspends Suu Kyi from Sakharov Prize community

Aung San Suu Kyi Sept 2020

Brussels, Belgium AP The European Parliament on Thursday suspended Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the group of former winners of its top human rights prize because of her “failure to act and her acceptance” of the oppression of the Rohingya Muslim ethnic group. A long-time political prisoner before she came to power, Suu […]

Desperation driving Rohingya to traffickers, UN envoy warns

Yanghee Lee

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Thomson Reuters Foundation Human traffickers are increasingly targeting Rohingya living in Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands fled after a brutal military crackdown in 2017, a UN investigator warned on Thursday. About 730,000 Rohingya were driven from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they live in squalid refugee camps, fearing further […]

Myanmar must give Rohingya ‘pathway to citizenship’ – UN investigator

Coxs Bazar refugee camp

London Thomson Reuters Foundation Myanmar must grant citizenship to stateless Rohingya with roots in the country, a senior UN investigator said on Wednesday, as she urged the country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi to “be the democrat she once told us she was”. Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not recognise the Muslim Rohingya as citizens despite a […]