Violence against civilians in Myanmar escalates

March 29, 2021

By The World staff

A man is shown wearing a medical mask while running past a large fire in the street behind him. — Anti-coup protesters run around their makeshift barricade they burn to make defense line during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar, March 28, 2021.
AP

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The deadly crackdown on protesters in Myanmar has resulted in another bloody day on top of weeks of violence as demonstrators take to the streets to oppose a military coup. Security authorities in the South Asian country on Sunday targeted the funeral of a student only a day after killing more than 100 people including children.

A UN human rights expert accused the ruling junta of committing “mass murder” in an increasingly volatile situation, according to The Associated Press.

Myanmar has come under international scrutiny because of the ongoing and seemingly indiscriminate killing of civilians that demonstrators call “fallen stars.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “horrified” and called for an end to the violence that began after a Feb. 1 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. More than 400 people have been killed since the coup.

What The World is following

Dozens of people in Mozambique were killed in an attack on the northern town of Palma, according to government officials. The region is of strategic importance for its oil wealth and has been the site of a three-year rebel insurgency. The latest violence has exacerbated a humanitarian crisis in the province, which has left 2,600 dead and displaced hundreds of thousands.

And, the massive container ship, Ever Given, has been successfully unstuck from the sandy back of the Suez Canal on Monday. Officials from the canal service provider working on freeing the ship said a flotilla of tugboats — aided by high tide — were able to refloat the skyscraper-sized vessel. The Ever Given had been blocking one of the world’s most important shipping lanes for nearly a week, causing markets to fluctuate and raising security concerns for the growing lineup of ships forced to wait.

From The World

This start-up turns locust swarms in Kenya into animal feed

Two people gather locusts from trees — Since late January, The Bug Picture has been paying people in rural Kenya to harvest locusts on their land. The insects are then ground up into protein-rich food for livestock. Courtesy of The Bug Picture

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Podcast: Coronavirus Conversations

Vaccine acceptance and public attitudes

Several long lines of traffic cones are shown winding around an empty parking lot. — Traffic cones line around the empty parking lot of Dodger Stadium, a mass COVID-19 vaccination in Los Angeles, Friday, Feb. 19, 2021.Damian Dovarganes/AP

? There seems to be a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel with the approval of several vaccines and the widespread rollout of vaccination campaigns around the world. But questions about vaccine acceptance persist.

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Bright Spot

One of the world’s most revered concert venues, the Royal Albert Hall, turns 150 years old on Monday. Famous for being home to classical music’s annual The Prom series, the hall has also played host top rock acts like Led Zeppelin but also suffragette rallies. Happy Birthday Royal Albert Hall!

Listen: What next for families turned away at the US-Mexico border

A small child is shown wearing a protective face mask and looking through the large medal polls of the US-Mexico border fence. — A migrant child looks through the US-Mexico border wall as a group is processed and taken into custody in Abram-Perezville, Texas, March 21, 2021.Julio Cortez/AP

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