KYAR GAUNG TAUNG, Myanmar: Rohingya Muslim Ayamar Bagon has lived on handouts since her husband left her after she told him she was gang-raped by Myanmar soldiers in the final month of her pregnancy.
She is among scores of women who accuse security forces of sexual abuses during a months-long military ‘clearance operation’ so brutal the UN fears it may amount to crimes against humanity.
AFP visited the remote region in the north of Rakhine State on a government-run trip this month, the first time foreign media have been officially allowed into the area since the military began hunting militants in October.
On the edge of Kyar Gaung Taung village, away from the government minders, a group of Rohingya women described how their lives were shattered the day soldiers came to their homes late last year.
“I was raped close to my due date, in my ninth month of pregnancy. They knew I was pregnant but didn’t care,” Ayamar Bagon told AFP through a UN translator, clutching her baby daughter to her chest.
“My husband blamed me for letting it happen. Because of this, he married another woman and now lives in another village,” the 20-year-old added, explaining that she survives on food donations from her neighbors.
Mother-of-two Hasinnar Baygon, 20, said her husband has also threatened to leave after she was raped by three troops in December.
They took turns to violate her while two others stood watch outside her hut, she alleges, adding that she knew they were soldiers because of their uniforms and guns.
All the Rohingya men had already fled the village out of fear they would be beaten up by troops, leaving only the women, children and elderly behind.
“My husband told me he is going to leave me. He blamed me for not running away,” Baygon said.
The government denies the allegations and AFP has not been able to verify their stories or claims from two other women who said they were raped by soldiers.
But they echo scores of accounts collected by UN investigators and rights groups from some of the 74,000 Rohingya who have fled to neighboring Bangladesh.
The UN believes hundreds may have died in what could be the bloodiest chapter of Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s years-long persecution of the 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims who live in Rakhine.
Kyar Gaung Taung village was caught up in one of the most brutal episodes in November, when witnesses and state media said dozens of Rohingya were killed as troops swept through the villages.
Myanmar’s government has denied almost all claims of abuses and barred a UN fact-finding mission from the area.
Instead they say probes by the military and police, as well as a state-appointed team, are sufficient.
“Cases have been filed regarding killings after the investigation. They also looked into allegations of rape,” said Brig. Gen. San Lwin, the head of the border guard police in Rakhine state, adding the investigations were ongoing.
Rohingya from Kyar Gaung Taung said they had lodged three rape cases out of 15 alleged assaults in the village, but nothing has been done.
Other women were too scared to report what happened to them, fearing retribution from authorities or being ostracized by their community and husbands.
“Some women didn’t want to complain for the sake of their pride,” said one Rohingya villager, who asked not to be named.
Rights groups have long accused Myanmar’s military of using rape as a weapon of war in several ethnic conflicts simmering in the country’s borderlands.
Fears of Muslim men violating Buddhist women have also long been used to stir sectarian hatred.
Allegations Muslims raped Buddhists sparked clashes in 2012 that drove more than 120,000 Rohingya into displacement camps, and deadly riots two years later near Mandalay.
Victims of the latest crisis say they hold little hope for justice.
“I didn’t know them. How can I report them?” said Ayamar Bagon of her rapists. “What can we do?”
Rohingya women abandoned after rapes
Rohingya women abandoned after rapes
World welcomes 2026 with fireworks after year of turmoil
- Australia holds defiant celebrations after its worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years
- Hong Kong holds a subdued event after a deadly fire in tower blocks
PARIS, France: People around the globe toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday, bidding farewell to one of the hottest years on record, packed with Trump tariffs, a Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used his traditional New Year address to tell his compatriots their military “heroes” would deliver victory in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, while his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was “10 percent” away from a deal to end the fighting.
Earlier, New Year celebrations took on a somber tone in Sydney as revellers held a minute of silence for victims of the Bondi Beach shooting before nine tons of fireworks lit up the harbor city at the stroke of midnight.
Seeing in the New Year in Moscow, Natalia Spirina, a pensioner from the central city of Ulyanovsk, said that in 2026 she hoped for “our military operation to end as soon as possible, for the guys to come home and for peace and stability to finally be established in Russia.”
Over the border in Vyshgorod, Ukrainian beauty salon manager Daria Lushchyk said the war had made her work “hell” — but that her clients were still coming regardless.
“Nothing can stop our Ukrainian girls from coming in and getting themselves glam,” Lushchyk said.
Back in Sydney, heavily armed police patrolled among hundreds of thousands of people lining the shore barely two weeks after a father and son allegedly opened fire on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting for almost 30 years.
Parties paused for a minute of silence an hour before midnight, with the famed Sydney Harbor Bridge bathed in white light to symbolize peace.
Pacific nations including Kiribati and New Zealand were the first to see in 2026, with Seoul and Tokyo following Sydney in celebrations that will stretch to glitzy New York via Scotland’s Hogmanay festival.
More than two million people are expected to pack Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach for what authorities have called the world’s biggest New Year’s Eve party.
In Hong Kong, a major New Year fireworks display planned for Victoria Harbor was canceled in homage to 161 people killed in a fire in November that engulfed several apartment blocks.
Truce and tariffs
This year has brought a mix of stress and excitement for many, war for others still — and offbeat trends, with Labubu dolls becoming a worldwide craze.
Thieves plundered the Louvre in a daring heist, and K-pop heartthrobs BTS made their long-awaited return.
The world lost pioneering zoologist Jane Goodall, the Vatican chose a new, American, pope and the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk laid bare America’s deep political divisions.
Donald Trump returned as US president in January, launching a tariff blitz that sent global markets into meltdown.
Trump used his Truth Social platform to lash out at his sliding approval ratings ahead of midterm elections to be held in November.
“Isn’t it nice to have a STRONG BORDER, No Inflation, a powerful Military, and great Economy??? Happy New Year!” he wrote.
After two years of war that left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins, US pressure helped land a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October — though both sides have accused each other of flagrant violations.
“We bid farewell to 2025 with deep sorrow and grief,” said Gaza City resident Shireen Al-Kayali. “We lost a lot of people and our possessions. We lived a difficult and harsh life, displaced from one city to another, under bombardment and in terror.”
In contrast, there was optimism despite abiding internal challenges in Syria, where residents of the capital Damascus celebrated a full year since the fall of Bashar Assad.
“There is no fear, the people are happy, all of Syria is one and united, and God willing ... it will be a good year for the people and the wise leadership,” marketing manager Sahar Al-Said, 33, told AFP against a backdrop of ringing bells near Damascus’s Bab Touma neighborhood.
“I hope, God willing, that we will love each other. Loving each other is enough,” said Bashar Al-Qaderi, 28.
Sports, space and AI
In Dubai, thousands of revellers queued for up to nine hours for a spectacular fireworks and laser display at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
After a build-up featuring jet skis and floating pianos on an adjacent lake, a 10-minute burst of pyrotechnics and LED effects lit up the needle-shaped, 828-meter tall (2,717-feet) tower.
The coming 12 months promise to be full of sports, space and questions over artificial intelligence.
NASA’s Artemis II mission, backed by tech titan Elon Musk, will launch a crewed spacecraft to circle the moon during a 10-day flight, more than 50 years since the last Apollo lunar mission.
After years of unbridled enthusiasm, AI is facing scrutiny and nervous investors are questioning whether the boom might now resemble a market bubble.
Athletes will gather in Italy in February for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
And for a few weeks in June and July, 48 nations will compete in the biggest football World Cup in history in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
