(Reuters) -At least 20 people were killed by Myanmar s security forces in the Ayeyarwady river delta region on Saturday after villagers armed with catapults and crossbows fought back against troops searching for weapons, local media and residents said. That would make it the heaviest civilian death toll in nearly two months. Some 845 people had previously been killed by the army and police since the Feb. 1 coup, according to an activist group. The junta has disputed that figure. Reuters was unable to reach a junta spokesman on Saturday for comment on the violence at Hlayswe village in Kyonpyaw township in the Ayeyarwady Region. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. The army has struggled to impose control since it overthrew elected leader Aug San Suu Kyi after a decade of democratic reforms had opened up the once isolated Southeast Asian state. Clashes broke out before dawn on Saturday at Hlayswe, some 150 km (100 miles) northwest of the main city of Yangon, when soldiers
Security forces in Myanmar killed at least twenty people on Saturday in violent clashes with villagers at Hlayswe village in Kyonpyaw township in the Ayeyarwady river delta region.
At least 20 people were killed by Myanmar’s security forces in the Ayeyarwady river delta region on Saturday after villagers armed with catapults and crossbows fought back against troops searching for weapons, local media and residents said.
Anti-coup protesters flash the three-finger salute and chant slogan during the demonstration against the military coup in the rain at Pabedan township in Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, April 30, 2021. - AP PARIS, May 2 (Reuters): The European Union is ready to offer its support to all parties to help restore democracy in Myanmar, the bloc s high representative have informed the Asean states.
Southeast Asian leaders said after an emergency Asean summit last week that they had reached consensus with Myanmar s junta on ending violence there. The European Union stands ready to support Asean . in facilitating a constructive dialogue with all key stakeholders with a view to bringing Myanmar/Burma back to its democratic path, the high representative said in a statement published on Friday.
Asia PacificHalf of Myanmar s population risks falling into poverty by 2022 -UNDP
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Mya Lay (R), 25, and her colleagues, who used to work at a marble mine but lost their jobs, pick leftover peanuts at a farm where they now work in Sagyin, Mandalay, Myanmar, February 15, 2019. REUTERS/Ann Wang
The dual impacts of the pandemic and Myanmar s political crisis triggered by a military coup could result in nearly half the population, or as many as 25 million people, dropping into poverty by 2022, the United Nations Development Programme warns.
In a report released on Friday, UNDP said the effect of the crises could push millions more people into poverty.