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Myanmar junta expands prisons

Satellite images collected and reviewed by Myanmar Witness – an organisation that reports on human rights abuses in Myanmar – reveal that existing prisons are getting bigger and new ones are being built in what it believes to be a secretive expansion programme by the military junta, which has been accused of the mass detention and killing of dissenters. Since it took power in a 2021 coup, almost 26,000 political prisoners have been arrested, including children, and almost 4,500 have been killed, according to rights NGO AAPP. For more on the growing humanitarian needs in Myanmar, read our December 2023 article.

Civilians trapped amid airstrikes run to safety during a battle to take over Loikaw in Kayah State, Myanmar November 14, 2023.

Aid needs grow in Myanmar as resistance advances put more civilians at risk

Longer-term hopes of the junta’s demise should be tempered by the reality of a worsening humanitarian outlook in the short term, observers say.

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