Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | Pope Francis on Thursday wraps up a visit to Myanmar defined by his decision not to address the Rohingya crisis in public, and flies to Bangladesh, where huge numbers of refugees from the Muslim minority languish in refugee camps. Christians make up less than 0.5 percent …
Read More »Pope sidesteps Rohingya crisis during Myanmar address
Naypyidaw, Myanmar | AFP | Pope Francis urged respect for rights and justice in a keenly-watched address in Myanmar on Tuesday, but refrained from any mention of the Rohingya or the alleged ethnic cleansing that has driven huge numbers of the Muslim minority from the country. Sharing a stage with Myanmar’s …
Read More »Pope arrives in Myanmar on high-stakes visit
Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | Pope Francis arrived in mainly Buddhist Myanmar Monday on a highly sensitive visit to a country facing sharp global criticism for the alleged ethnic cleansing of its Rohingya Muslim minority. The 80-year-old pontiff, the first to travel to Myanmar, was welcomed by children from different …
Read More »Pope heads to Myanmar and into Rohingya crisis
Rome, Italy | AFP | Pope Francis set off Sunday on his 21st and possibly most delicate overseas trip yet, a six-day visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh against the backdrop of the unfolding Rohingya refugee crisis. The 80-year-old pontiff’s plane left Rome en route for Yangon, Myanmar’s main city, shortly …
Read More »Bangladesh, Myanmar agree to start Rohingya return in two months
Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | Bangladesh and Myanmar will start repatriating refugees in two months, Dhaka said Thursday, as global pressure mounts over a crisis that has forced more than half a million Rohingya to flee across the border. The United Nations says 620,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since …
Read More »Suu Kyi meets Bangladesh minister over Rohingya repatriation
Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi met with Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Thursday to hammer out a deal to return hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Rakhine state, as global pressure mounts over the refugee crisis. More than 620,000 people have poured into …
Read More »Pope to meet Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis will meet Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar in Dhaka when he visits the Bangladeshi capital next week, a Vatican spokesman said Wednesday. Francis, who has repeatedly spoken out over the persecution of the religious minority by the Myanmar authorities, will meet a …
Read More »Desperate Rohingya use plastic rafts to flee Myanmar
Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh | AFP | Dozens of Rohingya refugees floated into Bangladesh on Wednesday on a raft fashioned from plastic jerrycans, as the persecuted Muslim minority continue to flee violence in Myanmar in droves, officials said. Bangladesh border guards spotted the makeshift raft overloaded with more than 50 …
Read More »Pope to visit Myanmar as anti-Rohingya hatred seethes
Yangon, Myanmar | AFP | Pope Francis will push for peace during his visit to mainly-Buddhist Myanmar, a church official said Thursday, a trip that plunges the pontiff into the centre of a simmering religious conflict which has sparked an exodus of Muslim Rohingya. Myanmar’s western Rakhine state has been torn …
Read More »Bangladesh bans three charities from giving Rohingya aid
Dhaka, Bangladesh | AFP | Bangladesh has banned three Islamic charities from working with Rohingya refugees, a lawmaker said Thursday, amid concerns displaced Muslims in camps along its border could be radicalized. Mahjabeen Khaled, an MP from the ruling Awami League, said the international charities Muslim Aid and Islamic Relief, and …
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