COX’S BAZAR: Myanmar urged Muslims in the troubled northwest to cooperate in the search for insurgents, whose coordinated attacks on security posts and an army crackdown have led to one of the deadliest bouts of violence to engulf the Rohingya community in decades.
Aid agencies estimate about 73,000 Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar since violence erupted last week, Vivian Tan, regional spokeswoman for UN refugee agency UNHCR, told Reuters on Sunday.
Hundreds more refugees on Sunday walked through rice paddies from the Naf river separating the two countries into Bangladesh, straining scarce resources of aid groups and local communities already helping tens of thousands.
The clashes and military counteroffensive have killed nearly 400 people during the past week.
The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that violence against Muslims amounted to genocide.
It marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a smaller Rohingya attack on security posts prompted a military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.
“Islamic villagers in northern Maungtaw have been urged over loudspeakers to cooperate when security forces search for Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) extremist terrorists, and not to pose a threat or brandish weapons when security forces enter their villages,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said on Sunday.
ARSA has been declared a terrorist organization by the government. The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week.
In Maungni village in northern Rakhine, villagers earlier this week caught two ARSA members and handed them over to the authorities, the newspaper added.
The army wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday that Rohingya insurgents had set fires to monasteries, images of Buddha as well as schools and houses in northern Rakhine.
More than 200 buildings, including houses and shops, were destroyed across several villages, the army said.
While Myanmar officials blamed the ARSA for the burning of the homes, Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh and human rights watchers say a campaign of arson and killings by the army is aimed at trying to force the minority group out.
More than 11,700 “ethnic residents” had been evacuated from northern Rakhine, the government has said, referring to non-Muslims.
Myanmar urges Rohingya Muslims to help hunt insurgents amid deadly violence
Myanmar urges Rohingya Muslims to help hunt insurgents amid deadly violence
Zimbabwe frees nearly 4,000 inmates
- A total of 4,305 — including 223 women — will eventually be released, Ziyambi said, with the scheme “focusing on vulnerable groups and those who have demonstrated significant progress in their rehabilitation”
HARARE: Zimbabwe on Monday began releasing nearly 4,000 inmates who were granted presidential amnesty in a bid to ease overcrowding in prisons.
The Cabinet announced the amnesty in February on the same day it approved sweeping changes to the constitution as part of a plan to extend 83-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term till 2030.
“The nation should note that the release of the 3,978 beneficiaries begins today,” Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said at a press conference in the capital Harare.
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The Cabinet announced the amnesty in February on the same day it approved sweeping changes to the constitution.
Zimbabwe’s prisons held just over 24,000 inmates in the second quarter of 2025, according to recent available national data.
A total of 4,305 — including 223 women — will eventually be released, Ziyambi said, with the scheme “focusing on vulnerable groups and those who have demonstrated significant progress in their rehabilitation.”
Among those freed was 23-year-old Tendai Chitsika, who had been serving a six-month sentence for theft and was only two months away from completing it.
“It was a learning curve for me. I’m a changed person and I promise to do good out there,” he said at Harare Central Prison, adding: “I want to thank the president for this opportunity.”
In the yard, hundreds of inmates sat divided into two groups. On one side were those still in their orange prison uniforms, destined to remain behind. On the other, men who had already changed into civilian clothes waited to be processed for release and return home.
Some broke into chants of “Mnangagwa huchi,” which loosely translated means “Mnangagwa is honey,” while one prisoner held aloft a banner bearing the president’s face.
The presidential amnesty “reflects a profound commitment to restorative justice, national compassion and the strategic decongestion of correctional facilities,” Ziyambi said.
The scheme did not include prisoners convicted of severe crimes such as murder, robbery, rape or “contravention of the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act” — a charge that has been used in the past against protesters and political opposition.
The southern African country has been stirred since last year by rising anger against Mnangagwa and his ruling Zanu-PF party, with leading opposition figures denouncing a constitutional “coup” after the constitutional amendments approved by the Cabinet last month.
The amendments — which still need to pass parliament, weighted in favor of the Zanu-PF — include extending the presidential term to seven years and scrapping general presidential elections by giving parliament the power to choose the president.
