News
‘The second wave has started’: COVID-19 cases skyrocket in Rakhine
Ten days ago, Myanmar seemed to have COVID-19 under control. Just a handful of local transmission cases had been confirmed in the past three months. The Ministry of Health and Sports has now reported more than 100 new cases within 24 hours, including 99 in Rakhine ...
AUNG PHAY KYI SOE and KAUNG HSET NAING
What role do nature-based solutions play in the Rohingya refugee crisis?
Over the last three years, the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf have been telling us many stories of failures, successes and uncertainties. These camps are a painful symbol of Myanmar’s atrocities against its own citizens, making them stateless. The government of Bangladesh, the ...
Haseeb Md Irfanullah
Facebook shares data on Myanmar with United Nations investigators
Facebook says it has shared data with United Nations investigators probing international crimes in Myanmar, after the lead investigator said the company was withholding evidence. A Facebook representative told Reuters on Tuesday it had given the Independent Investigative Mechanism on Myanmar (IIMM) data from pages and ...
Poppy McPherson
Indigenous activists clash with UN over proposed park
When farmer May Cho Win learned that a conservation project proposed by the U.N. Development Program in Myanmar would include the land she’s worked for over a decade, the 28-year-old wondered how she and her husband would be able to support their three children. “Without our ...
VICTORIA MILKO
Election commission allows PACE to monitor polls
The Union Election Commission (UEC) reversed its decision and decided to allow the People’s Alliance for Credible Elections (PACE), a local poll monitor, to observe the conduct of the upcoming November 8 polls. Sai Ye Kyaw Swar Myint, executive director of the PACE, said the UEC ...
Linn Hset Aung
Myanmar needs to reimagine its economic future
Development should be Myanmar’s number one priority. In the lifetime of today’s children, it has the potential to become a developed country. Combined with measures to fight inequality, finding the right path to development is critical for a successful transition to democracy. It’s also critical ...
THANT MYINT-U
Ministry to probe suspected illegal mining in Mon forest
Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation Ministry will investigate reports of illegal gold mining in a forest near Watwun mountain in Kyaikto township, Mon State, a senior official said. U Ye Myint Swe, the ministry’s deputy minister, said an area in the forest has been leased for ...
Yee Ywal Myint
Myanmar suspends Manipur hydro project in Chin State
Myanmar has suspended a 380-megawatt hydropower project at the Manipur River in Chin State due to high risks, U Tun Naing, Deputy Minister for Electricity and Energy, told the Hluttaw last week. “After a review at the State Economic Coordination Committee Meeting, this project was found ...
Htoo Thant
Plans for wind power from Chinese firm fall apart in Myanmar
Residents of Chaung Tha, a holiday resort and village on the Bay of Bengal, are still relying on diesel generators to get them through electricity blackouts more than four years after Myanmar’s government gave a Chinese company the go-ahead to build a wind farm nearby. Shortly ...
Kyaw Ye Lynn
Electrofishing thrives despite crackdown in Mandalay
Eleven people have been prosecuted and 77 boats have been seized for electrofishing in dolphin protected zone of the Ayeyarwady River in Mandalay Region since January 2018, but the practice continues, authorities said. U Han Win, who is in charge of Ayeyarwady dolphin conservation for the ...
Phyo Wai Kyaw