HANDOUT / FACEBOOK / AFP
At least 19 troops loyal to Myanmar’s junta and two members of a militia formed to protect residents from the military were killed during a firefight in Saigaing region’s war-torn Kalay township, sources said Friday, as fighting drove some 3,000 civilians to flee for safety in the nearby mountains.
Fighting broke out between the military and members of the Kalay People’s Defense Force (PDF) around 2:00 p.m. on Thursday as junta soldiers began a raid on the villages of Doe Nwe and Ashaysee, around 30 miles south of downtown Kalay, a member of the PDF told RFA’s Myanmar Service, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
RFA
More than 700 refugees from Myanmar’s embattled Kayah state are in dire need of assistance after fleeing fierce fighting between junta troops and a branch of the Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF) militia formed to protect them from military offensives, sources said Thursday.
Aid workers told RFA’s Myanmar Service that more than 330 women and children are among the refugees who were forced to walk through the jungle for nearly a week to reach areas of the state along the border with Thailand that are under the control of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) the political wing of the ethnic rebel Karenni Army (KA).
AFP
Nearly half of the 87 journalists arrested by Myanmar’s junta in the five months since its staged a coup on Feb. 1 remain in detention, mostly on charges of defamation, prompting their colleagues, family members, and media watchdogs to call for their immediate release Thursday.
According to reporting by RFA’s Myanmar Service, 31 reporters were released prior to June 30 when the junta declared a general amnesty and freed 2,300 prisoners from the country’s jails, including another 14 journalists. The Ayeyarwaddy Times’ Maubin correspondent Aung Mya Than one of the 14 freed in the amnesty was rearrested on July 10, leaving a total of 43 domestic and international reporters currently in detention.
Reuters
Cemeteries in Myanmar’s largest city Yangon are overflowing with corpses as hundreds of people each day are dying of COVID-19 related causes, aid groups in the city told RFA Wednesday, as many observers blamed the ruling military junta for a callous pandemic response.
Myanmar is dealing with a third wave of outbreaks of the disease, and Yangon’s four cemeteries are ill-equipped to handle daily death tolls of about 500 people amid an oxygen shortage that has gripped the entire country.
Almost all of Yangon’s coronavirus deaths are due to hypoxia, when oxygen fails to reach bodily tissues, a common symptom in serious COVID-19 cases, but Myanmar’s military junta two days ago denied that the oxygen shortage exists.
AFP
COVID-19 patients in Myanmar are dying due to a shortage of oxygen amid a third wave of infections in the country, healthcare workers said Monday, even as the military regime recently restricted sales of the gas, citing scams and price gouging.
As the number of infections climbs in the country, Myanmar’s junta-controlled COVID-19 treatment centers are at capacity and only accepting infected patients with severe symptoms, said a doctor in Mandalay, who spoke to RFA’s Myanmar Service on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal.
The policy has led to a run on oxygen supplies and related equipment as families scramble to provide treatment for their loved ones at home.