Myanmar’s Junta Intensifies Crackdown: Daily Brief
Junta’s crackdown on protesters accelerates in Myanmar; Houthi rebels attack migrant center in Yemen; alarming number of Jordanians jailed for failing to repay their debt; surge in targeted killings in Afghanistan; killings of lawyers at record high in the Philippines; pardon of militia leader in Sudan sends wrong message; Islamist militants are beheading children in Mozambique; UN puts spotlight on killing of South African environmental defender; and Canada allows 4-year old to return from Syria – but not her mother.
While Myanmar’s junta intensifies its bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters, the details of the violence have been increasingly hard to document due to mobile and internet shut-downs. Emboldened by a lack of UN resolutions that would impose real costs on the junta, the military seems determined to maintain power through the barrel of a gun.
Scores of migrants, mostly from Ethiopia, burned to death in Yemen after Houthi rebels launched two projectiles into an overcrowded hanger at a migrant detention center.
An alarming number of Jordanians end up in prison each year solely for failing to repay their loans, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
A recent surge in targeted killings in Afghanistan appears intended to drive women from public life and spread terror among minority communities.
More lawyers have been killed in the Philippines in the five years since President Rodrigo Duterte took office than under any other government in the country’s history.
Pardoning Musa Hilal, a former Darfuri tribal chief and leader of a militia responsible for serious war crimes in Darfur, sends the wrong signal for accountability in Sudan.
Islamist militants are beheading children as young as 11 in Mozambique's northern province of Cabo Delgado as the conflict continues to displace thousand, Save the Children reports.
In her latest report, highlighting the risks many environmental defenders operate under, and the widespread attempts to silence their voices, UN expert Mary Lawlor puts the spotlight on South Africa.
And lastly, Canada is allowing a 4-year-old Canadian girl to come home from detention in northeast Syria - but not her mother, who had travelled to Syria and married an ISIS member.