In northern Rakhine state, the refugee crisis is not the only worry on the minds of the Myanmar government. On 4 January, also Independence Day in Myanmar, Arakan Army militants killed 13 people and wounded nine others in Rakhine. According to local reports, the insurgents attacked four police posts in the Buthidaung area. The attacks by the Arakan Army reveals a deeply divided state, which has been marred by various other ethnic conflicts.

Two Reuters journalists jailed for seven years while investigating atrocities committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar had their appeal dismissed Friday, dismaying colleagues and tearful family members who had held slim hopes they would walk free.Reporters Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested in Yangon in December 2017 and later jailed for violating the state secrets act, a charge Reuters said was trumped up to muzzle their reporting.Prosecutors say the two had classified informat

Two Reuters journalists jailed while reporting on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar are set to appeal the decision Monday, after spending more than a year behind bars despite global outcry over their convictions.Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested in December 2017 and later sentenced to seven year prison terms for what prosecutors said was the possession of classified material on security operations.Reuters disputed the charge and said the two were set up after probing the massacre o

Myanmar's military announced Friday it would suspend "all military movements" in the troubled northern and eastern regions for four months, an unprecedented step that observers say could coax ethnic rebel groups into the country's fractious peace process.Conflicts have been festering in the border areas since independence from Britain 70 years ago, with various armed groups fighting for autonomy, identity, resources and territory.Tens of thousands of people living within t

Fleeing Rohingya Muslims sold ration books to help pay hundreds of dollars to traffickers in order to flee squalid Myanmar camps by boat, only to be stopped at sea and forced back destitute, the refugees told AFP on Friday.Images of hungry and thirsty refugees huddled on boats have stirred memories of a 2015 crisis, when thousands of fleeing Rohingya were stuck at sea as a trafficking trail south collapsed.Some 120,000 of the stateless Muslim minority have languished in camps in central Rakhi

Faced with dwindling tourist numbers from the West, Myanmar is pulling out all stops to woo visitors closer to home. It has relaxed visa rules to visitors from China, South Korea and Japan and aims to bring about half a million of them over to Mandalay this year.Beginning 1 October this year, the country has waived visa requirements for visitors from Japan and South Korea for one year, as a trial run. Visitor growth from these two countries had been stagnating for a while.

As desperation swells in the squalid camps that are home to a million Rohingya refugees, long-dormant - and often deadly - trafficking networks are being revived, Bangladeshi officials warn.Smugglers operating rickety fishing boats prey on the hopes of people who fled violence in Myanmar, charging them small fortunes for a dangerous journey to Southeast Asia, offering an empty promise of a fresh start.

The repatriation plan between the Bangladeshi and Myanmar governments to return Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar has been postponed indefinitely again amid growing concerns on the wellbeing of returning refugees. Last month on 30 October, the Bangladeshi and Myanmar governments reached an agreement to begin the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh this month.

The violence which drove 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar into Bangladesh was "without excuse", United States (US) Vice President Mike Pence told Aung San Suu Kyi in stinging comments on Wednesday.On the side-lines of the 33rd ASEAN Summit in Singapore, Pence piled the pressure on Myanmar's de facto leader, calling for an explanation of the jailing of two Reuters journalists over their coverage of the crisis.

The United Nations (UN) rights chief on Tuesday urged Bangladesh to halt imminent plans to start returning Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, warning doing so risked further grave violations against the Muslim minority.