Yegyaw festival in Yangon to start this Friday
Yangon residents said that the regime has announced that the Yegyaw festival, which takes place on Yegyaw Road in Pazundaung Township, is set to run this year from Nov. 22-25. The festival has been traditionally held during the Thadingyut holiday Oct. 16-18, but has not been held since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 military coup.
“I don’t know why they want to host the festival now instead of during the Thadingyut festival when it is usually held. The regime administration already set places for the vendors. We are afraid something bad might happen,” a Pazundaung resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity. The festival historically attracts tens of thousands of visitors to Yegyaw Road in Yangon.
The festival usually features street food, traditional snacks, shops, a ferris wheel, and other forms of carnival entertainment. “They want people to be busy with festivities and are trying to show that everything is back to normal under their [regime]. I believe there will be more festivities ahead of Christmas and the New Year,” said another Pazundaung resident. The Tazaungdaing Festival was held nationwide Nov. 11-17.
Over 170 Rohingya dead after boat capsizes near Ayeyarwady Region
A total of 174 Rohingya died in a boat that capsized near Hai Gyi Island, located 106 miles (171 km) south of the Ayeyarwady Region capital Pathein, on Nov. 10, according to Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK). Six survivors that clung to debris were eventually rescued by a foreign ship but were later handed over to the Burma Navy.
“Children and families are risking their lives on unseaworthy boats because they have no safe options [to remain] in Burma,” said Tun Khin, the president of BROUK. “The drowning of 174 Rohingya is not just another tragedy at sea—it is a direct consequence of ongoing genocide and brutal repression [by the regime].”
The boat was reportedly carrying 180 passengers, who had fled fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and the military in neighboring Arakan State. Tun Khin called on the U.N. Security Council to enforce the provisional measures set out by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its 2019 genocide case – brought by The Gambia against Burma – to protect the Rohingya. Human rights groups have reported that the AA and the military have targeted Rohingya since fighting in northern Arakan intensified in May.
Myanmar’s humanitarian crisis worsening along border, UN states
Fighting along Burma’s borders with China, Thailand and Bangladesh has disrupted the flow of essential supplies into the country, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said in a statement released on Tuesday. The U.N. claimed that the closure of gates along the China-Burma has exacerbated the country’s humanitarian crisis.
“This situation underscores the critical need for coordinated efforts to restore trade routes and ensure humanitarian support reaches vulnerable people before conditions worsen further,” stated the U.N. in an update on Nov. 19. Over 500 trucks remain stranded in northern Shan State, where fighting has escalated since the Brotherhood Alliance launched Operation 1027 on Oct. 27, 2023.
Chinese authorities restricted trade through gates along the Burma-China border in Shan and Kachin states last month. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) closed three Burma-China border gates located in Kachin State at the end of October. Most gates along the China-Burma border have been seized by the Brotherhood Alliance and the KIA in the last year of fighting.
News by Region
SAGAING—Over 20,000 civilians have been displaced from their homes since the Burma National Revolutionary Army (BNRA) launched an offensive on military positions in Pale Township Nov 11. The BNRA retreated from Pale, which is located 35 miles (56 km) southwest of the Sagaing Region capital Monywa, due to airstrikes carried out by the Air Force and pro-regime troops deployed to the town on Nov. 14.
“Displaced residents are afraid to return to their villages as the military has been burning down civilian homes in the town and nearby villages since it re-entered Pale Township,” a coordinator from the Sagaing People’s Aid Network told DVB. At least three civilians have been killed during retaliatory airstrikes on the township.
Four civilians, including a monk, and a People’s Defense Force (PDF) member were killed during a drone strike conducted by the military in Kanbalu Township on Monday. Six others were injured in the attack, which targeted a PDF-controlled checkpoint on a road, according to sources in Kanbalu Township.
“The military conducted two drone strikes. They dropped three bombs in the first attack and two bombs in the second attack. The bombs landed right next to a ‘Ngwe Toe Man’ bus vehicle, killing a monk, three women, and one PDF member,” a PDF member in Kanbalu Township told DVB. Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing visited a drone factory during his recent visit to China.
TANINTHARYI—One civilian was killed and one was injured after the military opened fire on a motorbike the two were traveling on in Myeik Township, located 152 miles (245 km) south of the Tanintharyi Region capital Dawei, on Sunday. “Two men in their twenties were delivering goods but were shot by the soldiers. One was killed instantly and the other was injured in his thigh,” a Myeik resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity.
YANGON—A Buddhist abbot was killed by an explosive that detonated inside a building within a monastery compound in Tamwe Township on Monday. “The bomb exploded beside the room where the abbot lived and killed him instantly. No one from the monastery knows exactly how and why the blast occurred,” a source close to the regime administration told DVB on the condition of anonymity. The military questioned monks at the monastery after the explosion. No group has claimed responsibility.
(Exchange rate: $1 USD = 4,520 kyat)
