Ruqia Haidari was the baby of the family.

The youngest of five children, she was born in Afghanistan in 1999, just a month before her father, a fruit and vegetable seller, was killed by the Taliban.

So desperate was her mother to protect her children that she fled with the four youngest – all aged under five – first to Pakistan then to Australia, where they settled in Shepparton, a regional town in northern Victoria in 2013.

Australia offered the children opportunities their mother, Sakina Muhammad Jan, never had. They went to school, learned English, and made friends outside their Hazara community, an ethno-religious minority with a long history of persecution in Afghanistan.

But a decade on, Haidari is dead, and her mother has served the first week of a three-year sentence for forcing her to marry a man against her wishes to study and get a job.

Jan is the first person in Australia to be convicted of forced marriage since it was criminalized in 2013. The court heard there was no suggestion she knew her daughter’s husband would kill her just weeks after she moved in with him.

“You were the trusted and only living parent of the victim. It was your acts of coercion that caused her to enter the marriage,” Judge Fran Dalziel told Jan from the bench at Victoria County Court, in comments that had to be translated into Jan’s native language, Dari.

The crime carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison for victims over 18, but Jan was sentenced to three, to be released with restrictions after 12 months.

Since then, word has spread about what the sentence means, particularly for parents who feel compelled to push their children to marry due to their own beliefs or community pressure.

“It has caused a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety in our community,” said Helena Hassani, an expert on forced marriage in Australia with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and founder of Boland Parwaz, an organization that seeks to end child and forced marriage.

I know at least one of their daughters are being forced to get married in Australia.

Helena Hassani, expert on child and forced marriage

“That day when she was sentenced, we had a family gathering. A lot of middle-aged women who never talk about these things were asking me, what’s going to happen? Is she going to go to jail?”

“I was like, yes, she’s sentenced, and you’re going to have to be really careful, because forced marriage is illegal in Australia,” said Hassani. “And they’re really looking pale, because I know at least one of their daughters are being forced to get married in Australia.”

A life sentence

Forced marriage is considered a form of gender-based violence that predominantly affects young women, whose control over their lives is passed without consent from their parents to their partners. It can lead to decades of physical and psychological abuse, and in some cases suicide or murder.

In the past six years, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has received 531 reports of forced marriages in Australia, most involving children under the age of 18.

Haidari’s was one of them.

She was introduced to her future husband, Mohammad Ali Halimi, on June 1, 2019, and the very next day began confiding her objections to her friends, her driving instructor, her teachers, then ultimately the police.

Officers spoke to her on August 19, but the next day a mullah was called to officiate a permanent Nikah ceremony, confirming the couple’s earlier engagement.

He paid her family a dowry of 15,000 Australian dollars ($9,700).

Halimi returned to his home in Perth in Western Australia, under the agreement that his wife would join him when she finished high school.

“In our community, in our culture, we have got this saying, which is girls should leave their parents’ home with a white dress, which is your wedding dress, and they should leave their husband’s home again with a white dress, which is your coffin,” said Hassani.

And that is exactly what happened to Haidari.

In January 2020, within weeks of a party to celebrate their marriage at a sports center in Shepparton attended by 500 guests, Halimi killed his young wife.

At home in Perth, he had been arguing with Haidari’s brother on the phone, and when the call ended, the unhappy newlyweds continued to fight.

According to court documents, Haidari told him to “f*** off,” and he grabbed a large kitchen knife and lunged at her with such force that he severed two of her arteries.

Halimi pleaded guilty, telling police he’d become increasingly frustrated after she repeatedly rebuffed his attempts at sexual intimacy. He also complained that she had failed to cook or keep the house clean, and often slept while he worked seven days a week to support them.

Halimi was sentenced to life in prison.

“She really did not want to get married,” Hassani, of UTS, said of Haidari.

“She came back from Perth, asking the family, please don’t let me go, please get my divorce, and mom was like, ‘No, go back.’”

“You’re supposed to leave your husband’s home with white coffin, which she did, poor lady.”

A civil response

Jennifer Burn, the founding director of Anti-Slavery Australia, says that women inside and outside the country seek help every day via My Blue Sky, a website that offers free and confidential advice to women stuck in or trying to avoid forced marriages.

“Australia is so multicultural, and we have reports across the board, all religions, all ethnicities,” said Burn, who has campaigned against modern slavery for more than two decades. Forced marriages have been reported within communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and India, among others.

Often, those at risk are young girls from socially conservative families, who are living at home and are reluctant to go to the police because they don’t want their parents to get into trouble.

Australia is so multicultural … we have reports across the board.

Jennifer Burn, founding director, Anti-Slavery Australia

The practice has been going on for decades, but in recent years the Australian government has made a point of targeting offenders, and on the day of Jan’s sentencing, the attorney general announced the start of consultations about what a stronger civil response could look like.

Changes could include allowing victims to apply for a court protection order against potential offenders or relaxing the rules so that adults can be added to airport watch lists, if there’s a fear they could be taken abroad to be married.

“This idea of building greater civil protection for people who are facing forced marriages is really, really important, and that can go hand in hand with the criminal response,” said Burn.

Some of the measures borrow from forced-marriage laws in Britain, where hundreds of people take out protection orders each year to thwart an impending forced marriage.

The United Kingdom also has the interagency Forced Marriage Unit, which works with the foreign and interior ministries as well as charities to try and stop British victims being compelled to marry both at home and abroad.  The unit’s latest statistics show 69% of cases referred to them involve female victims, while 31% are male.

Other countries such as France, Canada and Germany also have specific laws against forced marriage.

Support is already given to women within Australia, but in late July rules were relaxed so that social welfare groups can also refer victims for crisis support and accommodation, alongside the AFP.

“You don’t need to talk to the police. You can be supported for up to 200 days, and potentially more,” said Burn. “You’d be provided with comprehensive 24/7 casework support, including accommodation. That is something that can be incredibly important in a crisis situation.”

A mother behind bars

Straight after Monday’s sentencing hearing, Jan was taken away to spend her first days inside a women’s prison on the outskirts of Melbourne.

Her barrister Andrew Buckland said that, as an illiterate, non-English speaker, it’s likely she doesn’t have a good understanding of what’s going on, though she has indicated she wants to appeal the sentence.

As a permanent resident and not an Australian citizen, Jan’s sentence will cost her far more than 12 months in prison. Under Australia’s Migration Act, her visa could be cancelled under rules that seek to remove non-citizens who commit serious crimes.

A month before Jan’s sentencing, the immigration minister circulated a directive specifically naming the crime of forced marriage as serious enough to warrant the removal of a visa. Without a visa, Jan would be subject to deportation to her home country of Afghanistan, although as signatory to the Refugee Convention, Australia is obligated to not send refugees back to potential harm.

Since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in August 2021, the persecution of Hazaras has escalated alongside increasing deprivations for women who are now living under a system of “gender apartheid,” according to the United Nations.

Without a visa, after serving her sentence, Jan could be forced into immigration detention, or potentially released under a bridging visa with strict monitoring conditions including the use of an ankle bracelet.

During Jan’s sentencing hearing, Judge Dalziel cited a letter of support from the Goulburn Valley Afghanistan Association that described her as “a quiet, kind and helpful woman.”

However, Hassani says Jan has lost the respect of the community she tried so hard to please.

“It has really damaged her reputation, her respect, and she has literally no place in the community,” she said.

Like many perpetrators, Jan was also a victim of forced marriage, compelled to marry a man she didn’t know at age 12. Her first baby followed soon after.

Her parents would likely have believed they were acting in her best interests.

“The whole community believes that if you have got a husband, then you’re respected, you’re valued, the whole world is yours,” said Hassani. “To be a good woman, you have to be married, and you have to be a nice, obedient wife.”

To be divorced is to bring shame on the family. It can also be financially debilitating for whichever party has to pay back the dowry and cost of wedding celebrations.

“A lot of girls would rather suicide, than live with that shame and stigma,” she said.

Divorcees are labeled as “bewa,” which was the label attached to Haidari years earlier when her mother arranged for her to marry another man at age 15. That union ended in divorce.

The court heard that Jan thought that marrying off Ruqia would be in her best interests.

“Whilst you believed you were acting in her best interests, you were not in fact doing so,” said Judge Dalziel.

It’s not acceptable within the Hazara community to force a child to marry. But it does happen, and the value the community places on marriage makes it hard to break the cycle.

But Hassani believes change can happen – she’s already seeing younger generations pushing back against the pressure placed on them to marry.

“I’m really happy that a lot of children who have grown up here are standing up for themselves,” she said. “But it still needs a lot of time to resolve this clash between parents and the community’s expectations.”

Israeli airstrikes on two school buildings in the north of Gaza City killed 17 Palestinians, most of them children, and left at least 63 injured according to Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal on Saturday.

“The schools were targeted a second time with three missiles, resulting in 17 martyrs and dozens of injured individuals who were transported to the Baptist Hospital in the city,” Basal said.

According to Gaza Civil Defense, the schools were being used as shelters for people displaced by violence. Both Al-Huda School and Al-Hamama School, which are adjacent to each other and share the same playground, were targeted, Basal said.

After the initial strike, more than three missiles struck the area in a “double tap” attack, according to Basal.

“The first bombing was unexpected and resulted in a large number of martyrs and injured individuals. While the martyrs and injured were being retrieved, the occupation forces issued a warning that another strike was imminent,” Basal said.

The Civil Defense in Gaza published a list of the names of the killed individuals, showing that at least three of the dead were female.

Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza on October 7, after terror group Hamas attacked southern Israel. At least 1,200 people were killed, and more than 250 others abducted in the Hamas-led assault, according to Israeli authorities.

Israeli military action in the strip has since killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and injured over 90,000, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. As of early July, nearly 2 million people had been displaced in Gaza – almost the entire population, according to figures from the United Nations.

Anti-government rallies erupted in several cities across Israel this weekend, as tens of thousands of Israelis demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strike a deal with terror group Hamas to free more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza.

The demonstrations – a regular occurrence – were notable for taking place despite urgent security warnings as Israel braces for a possible strike from Iran. Some form of military retaliation has been widely expected in the region following the unclaimed assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday.

Despite the tense security situation, large crowds gathered to Begin Gate in Tel Aviv on Saturday to support the families of the hostages and to call for their release from captivity, according to protest organizers. Videos showed protestors waving Israeli flags and holding up signs with images of the Israeli hostages.

At the Begin gate of the Kirya IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, people were heard chanting, “We’re not letting up; release the hostages.” Others shouted, “Stop the death, stop the bereavement, human lives above all!” Some protestors stood surrounded by barricades, symbolizing hostages who are reported to have been kept in cages.

There are currently 115 total hostages, living and dead, being held in Gaza, according to Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Of that number, 111 hostages were taken during the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which killed over 1,200 people.

Israeli’s ensuing military offensive in the isolated Palestinian enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly 2 million, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health and the United Nations.

Family members of captives held in Gaza have harshly criticized the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the conflict. In a statement released Saturday, an association representing the families accused the Israeli leader of choosing “to escalate the situation instead of securing a deal that would save lives.”

Anger and impatience over the slow pace of hostage releases from Gaza flared this week following a new report that Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu clashed with top advisors on whether to accept a new hostage and ceasefire deal, which the Israeli Prime Minister Office has rejected as “incorrect.”

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that, at a tense meeting of Israel’s security council on Wednesday night, senior officials had urged Netanyahu to take a hostage and ceasefire deal with Gaza militant group Hamas.

The report claimed that Mossad director David Barnea had said “there is a deal ready and that Israel must take it,” while Ronen Bar, the head of Israeli security agency Shin Bet, said it appeared to him the prime minister did not want the outline of the deal on the table.

Netanyahu reportedly banged on the table and said the team “don’t know how to conduct negotiations.”

The Prime Minister’s office refuted the characterization of the alleged exchange in a statement, and said that Netanyahu is committed to the hostages’ release. “The head of the Mossad did not say that there was a deal ready and that it should be accepted. The description that Hamas supposedly agreed to the terms of the deal is false…” it said.

Netanyahu’s office on Saturday released another statement accusing “leaks and false briefings in the media” of misleading the public, and blaming Hamas for hindering negotiations. “While Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to the deal outline, Hamas has been trying to introduce dozens of changes that, de facto, nullify the outline,” the statement said.

After the report was broadcast, families of hostages demanded to know “who is obstructing the negotiations,” in a statement, and called for a public report on efforts to secure a hostage release deal.

Iran has claimed that the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this week was carried out by a “short-range projectile” and a “severe explosion” outside a guest house where he was staying.

The death of the Hamas leader further heightened tensions at an already volatile time, raising fears that Israel’s conflict with Hamas and its allies could develop into a multi-front, fully-fledged war in the Middle East.

The Iranian government and Hamas say that Israel carried out the assassination. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

On Saturday, Iran warned that “blood vengeance” for the killing was “certain.”

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed in a statement that the short-range projectile that reportedly killed Haniyeh had a warhead of about seven kilograms, based on “investigations and research conducted.”

US officials were briefed on the operation by Israeli officials only after the assassination, the source said.

“This action was planned and executed by the Zionist regime with the support of the criminal American government,” the IRGC alleged. Iran calls Israel the Zionist regime.

Israel “will decisively receive the response to this crime,” which is a “severe punishment” that will come at “an appropriate time, place, and manner,” the IRGC said.

The chief spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Thursday that Israel is on “high alert” for both defensive and offensive military action.

“IDF forces are deployed in the air, at sea and on the ground, and are prepared for all scenarios, especially for offensive plans within the immediate timeframe,” Hagari said.

At least 32 people have been killed and dozens injured in a suicide attack at a beach restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday, state media SONNA reported Saturday.

Six members of the Somali militant group al-Shabaab targeted the restaurant at the Beach View Hotel using a suicide bomb, according to SONNA.

“Security forces neutralized” five of the attackers who carried out the attack on Lido Beach, SONNA reported. It’s unclear if the sixth attacker has been killed as well.

Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they were targeting Somali officials and officers, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks online activity of extremist organizations.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Eight people were arrested and three police officers were injured during violent unrest in Britain’s northeast, the latest in a wave of protests around the country after the fatal stabbing of three children earlier this week.

The eight were taken into custody on Friday night in Sunderland, Northumbria Police Chief Superintendent Helena Barron said in a statement, calling the scenes “completely unacceptable.”

The latest clash came days after violent far-right protests broke out in the northwestern town of Southport, where a teenage boy fatally stabbed three girls aged between six and nine during an event at a dance school. Eight other children also suffered stab wounds, and five of them were in critical condition alongside two adults believed to have been injured while protecting them.

Videos circulating on social media from the Sunderland protest show a local police station on fire and large crowds gathered carrying anti-immigrant signs.

“The shocking scenes we have witnessed in Sunderland this evening are completely unacceptable,” Chief Superintendent Barron said.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that the disorder, violence and damage which has occurred will not be tolerated.”

Earlier this week, police said they believed the crowd in Southport took to the streets over unconfirmed reports speculating on the identity of the teenage stabbings suspect.

The 17-year-old appeared at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and was named as Axel Rudakubana, PA Media reported after a judge lifted the reporting restrictions that normally apply to minors.

He has been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder, as well as possession of a bladed article.

Police have said the suspect was born in Wales and lived in a village nearby, according to Reuters.

Lewis Atkinson, Labour MP for Sunderland Central, said on X that he was “appalled” by the scenes of destruction in the city on Friday.

“Our city is not represented by a tiny minority causing trouble,” Atkinson added, pledging his “full support” for the police to respond to “criminal thuggery and work to protect all the communities of our city.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper warned criminals stoking disorder “will pay the price for their violence and thuggery,” in a post on X on Friday.

“The police have the full backing of Government to take the strongest possible action & ensure they face the full force of the law. They do not represent Britain,” she said.

The statement that upended Venezuela came 24 hours after polls closed in the presidential election.

With the reassuring tone of someone who has consistently been considered an underdog, opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado announced that her coalition had gathered more than two-thirds of vote tally sheets from polling centers nationwide, and that they show President Nicolás Maduro had lost his reelection bid.

The tally sheets known as actas — printouts measuring several feet that resemble shopping receipts — have long been considered the ultimate proof of election results in Venezuela. Opposition members knew they had to obtain as many of them as possible to refute the unfavorable election outcome they expected electoral authorities to announce.

Months of preparations and thousands of volunteers participated in the herculean task.

Their effort earned Maduro and his loyal National Electoral Council global condemnation, including from close regional allies, and fueled the anger of Venezuelans fed up with their nation’s cascading economy. In response, the government called for opposition leaders to be arrested, capping an election season marked by repression and irregularities.

This account of the opposition’s effort is based on public statements, as well as interviews with party representatives, volunteers and others involved, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government retribution.

Discipline

Tens of thousands of volunteers participated in training workshops nationwide in recent months. They learned that under the law they could be inside polling centers on Election Day, stationed near voting machines, from before polls opened until the results had been electronically transmitted to the National Electoral Council in the capital, Caracas.

Organizational discipline was key to their success because the ruling party wields tight control over the voting system. Polling places are guarded by soldiers, civilian militia, police and loyalists of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

On Sunday, officials attempted to block opposition volunteers from voting centers, and in some places, they succeeded. But elsewhere, the volunteers were unshakable, and once inside voting centers, they did not leave, in some cases until after 11 p.m.

“They took courage with their law in hand, with the polling station manual in hand, and they managed to enter,” Machado said Sunday, before the polls closed. She called party representatives and other volunteers “the heroes of this process.”

The 90,000 party representatives were taught to obtain a copy of the tally sheets — printed from electronic voting machines after polls close — before the results were transmitted to the council.

“Our representatives have the right to their tally sheet,” Machado said. “No representative leaves their voting center without the document in hand.”

The volunteers were also trained to use a custom-made app to report voting center irregularities such as opening delays or power outages, and to scan a QR code printed on every tally sheet.

The ‘chorizo’

Venezuelans have used electronic voting machines for about two decades. The machines record votes, provide a paper receipt for each voter and — after polls close — print copies of the tally sheets, whose length has led to the nickname, “chorizo,” or “sausage’ in Spanish.

The tallies show vote totals broken down by candidate, the QR code and the signatures of party representatives, an employee of the electoral body and poll workers who are drawn by lot to participate.

Every party representative is entitled to a tally sheet, while another copy is placed in an envelope and delivered to the National Electoral Council headquarters.

Infighting and disorganization had consistently limited the ability of government opponents to secure and safeguard the tallies in previous elections. But Machado said the opposition had obtained more than 70% of sheets. That number would eventually grow to over 80%.

The QR code scans gave a team of campaign workers immediate access to voting results, which they tabulated Sunday night and Monday.

The National Electoral Council has not yet shared the tallies on its website, which has been down since Monday. While it is not obligated to post images of the tally sheets, it has previously shared each sheet’s totals.

The council on Monday reported that Maduro received 5.1 million votes, while Edmundo González, representing the Unitary Platform opposition coalition, earned more than 4.4 million. Council President Elvis Amoroso on Friday provided updated results from 96.87% of tally sheets, gave Maduro 6.4 million votes and Gonzalez 5.3 million.

Eight other men vied for the presidency, including Enrique Márquez, a former member of the electoral council, who decried the official results and lambasted authorities for the lack of transparency.

“Most of our witnesses … were prevented from accessing the voting centers,” he told reporters. “Those who were able to enter witnessed the process and waited for the tally sheets, but they were not given to them as required by law and its regulations. Not only does it violate the law, it generates obscurity, opacity, lack of transparency.”

The opposition, electoral experts and foreign governments questioning the official results, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, both Maduro allies, who have urged him to make the sheets public.

By bike, motorcycle, car or boat

Securing the “chorizo” from each of the 30,000 voting machines was only half the battle. The campaign needed to get them all fully scanned using equipment especially designed to copy the tally sheets.

That’s when yet more volunteers came into play. If the party representatives did not feel safe or were unable to reach the places where the scanners were housed, volunteers met the representatives, grabbed the sheets and transported them via motorcycle, car, bike and even boat to the appropriate locations.

By the time National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso was shown on television handing Maduro a document certifying his victory, the opposition had scanned more than half of the tally sheets. Hours later, Machado and González stood before reporters and announced the numbers that shook the country: The vote tallies show González received roughly 6.2 million votes versus Maduro’s 2.7 million. The scanned tallies were also uploaded to a searchable website, and anyone who voted could use their government identification number to check out the tally sheet belonging to the machine they used to vote.

The government then claimed that the electoral council’s website had been hacked. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez insisted Maduro was the indisputable winner and called his opponents violent fascists. He called for Machado and González to be arrested.

Maduro has faced a cascade of criticism ever since. International observers say they were unable to verify the results. Regional allies urged the government to publish the complete vote tallies. On Thursday, the U.S. government congratulated González on his victory.

“At least 12 million Venezuelans peacefully went to the polls and exercised one of the most powerful rights given to people in any democracy: the right to vote,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the processing of those votes and the announcement of results by the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) were deeply flawed, yielding an announced outcome that does not represent the will of the Venezuelan people.”

The pounding of sustained gunfire and artillery had rattled Khin Swe’s home in northeastern Myanmar for days, with shelling getting ever closer until it was impossible for her to remain.

“There was nothing we could do to be safe, except to run,” said the 28-year-old online sales rep.

Like many of the residents of Lashio, a major town of about 170,000 people nestled in the mountains of northern Shan state, Khin Swe packed what she could and fled.

Images published by local media in the past few weeks show a mass exodus from the town, with a long line of cars, trucks and bikes laden with belongings snaking through muddy, monsoon-lashed roads.

Since late June, a powerful ethnic rebel army and its allied resistance forces have mounted a renewed offensive to capture Lashio. The strategic garrison town, the largest in Shan state, is the seat of the junta’s regional Northeastern Military Command and the center of its power base in Myanmar’s northeast and areas near the Chinese border, with about 40 battalions under its command.

Myanmar has spiraled into a devastating civil conflict since the junta’s 2021 coup was overwhelmingly spurned by the people, as the military wages a ruthless war against a nationwide armed resistance determined to oust it from power.

On July 25, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), a rebel force of the ethnic Chinese Kokang minority, announced it had “won a decisive victory” against the junta and declared Lashio “fully liberated” following a 23-day operation.

If confirmed, the capture of Lashio would be the biggest victory for the resistance since the coup and mark a turning point in the three-year civil war that has been characterized by increasingly brutal attacks against civilians by junta soldiers and warplanes, and the mass displacement of more than 3 million people.

Junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun has repeatedly denied that the town and the regional command has been captured, calling the claims “propaganda.” The junta said the rebel group has “devastated civilians’ areas [rather] than military strategic holds.”

Video and images posted to social media and on the MDNAA’s accounts in recent days appeared to show their troops in central Lashio, including at the railway station, prison and a broadcast station, and within hundreds of meters of core military infrastructure.

Analysts say the situation remains fluid and while the rebel group is quickly moving through the town, capturing several battalions especially to the south of the city, fighting is ongoing.

“That sort of position in the very middle of Lashio certainly points toward significant gains within the city,” said Nathan Ruser, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, who has been mapping positions of the resistance in Lashio.

For Lashio to fall, “it basically eliminates the junta as an effective organized force from a huge part of the country,” Ruser said. “And for it to appear to be happening after only about a month of clashes shows how much the capabilities of the junta have declined in the last year especially.”

Caught in the crossfire

Khin Swe said Lashio’s residents were used to the sounds of fighting nearby but not within the city itself.

“Artillery shelling was fired constantly at night over the town. With our phones in our hands to keep updated with the news, we all sat anxiously. Some nights, I didn’t dare to sleep as shells roared overhead. At some point I fell asleep and was woken up by the sound of the loud artillery again,” she said. “It was the scariest moment I have ever experienced in my life.”

Khin Swe, whose home was close to the base, described how shelling started near her part of town but had grown in intensity in other areas as the military’s soldiers exchanged fire with the rebels.

She escaped to Myanmar’s second-biggest city Mandalay, a six-hour drive away in normal conditions. Bus fares leaving the city had skyrocketed, she said, as droves of people tried to flee.

Some of her family members decided to stay in Lashio to protect their homes and businesses. Before phone lines got cut off, Khin Swe said her relatives “saw Kokang troops move into the town and position themselves in empty buildings, while they urged the people to leave.”

“I am sure my home has been wrecked, but we can’t reach out to people who are left in the town because the phone connection is cut off,” she said. “My friend who had stayed in the town until very recently told me that most of the houses have been damaged.”

Being among many people displaced by war in Mandalay, Khin Swe said she and her family “are barely surviving.”

“The displacement shelters are full up with the entire population of Lashio town, some of us are struggling to find a place to live. Besides, we don’t have food to eat either,” she said. “Our family could not take some valuable items other than some money, and now we are living with more than 30 people in a place we rented.”

Other Lashio residents caught in the crossfire have written desperate messages for help on local community and neighborhood Facebook groups.

“There are children and elderly being caught in a high school amid crossfire in Lashio, they have not eaten the whole day, I don’t know how to help,” one social media user posted.

“We are a group of three girls with a 70-year-old grandma, we want to leave the town either for Taunggyi or Mandalay, but we are struggling with how,” another resident posted, leaving her phone number.

The fighting, which has extended across Shan state and the neighboring Mandalay region has forced thousands of civilians to flee – many of them multiple times – often to towns and villages also facing a barrage of junta airstrikes and shelling.

The deteriorating humanitarian crisis is being exacerbated by a lack of food and aid, with local community networks risking their lives to reach those in need.

Coordination of anti-coup resistance

Rebels have reportedly seized dozens of junta bases and several northern towns since a renewed offensive in late June by the Three Brotherhood Alliance, a trio of ethnic armed groups fighting alongside the People’s Defence Force (PDF), the armed wing of the national unity government in exile.

The gains for the rebel alliance – made up of the MNDAA, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army – followed the collapse of a Chinese-brokered ceasefire, according to local media and resistance groups.

Last week, the TNLA said it had captured another strategic town in the Mandalay region – Mogok, the center of Myanmar’s lucrative gem mining industry.

Analysts say resistance forces now control many of the roads to Lashio and other key towns in the northeast, preventing the military from resupplying soldiers in its peripheral outposts.

“They’re unable to push forces up because all the roads are controlled by the opposition, so they have a hard time sending reinforcements,” said Miemie Winn Byrd, a retired US Army Lt. Col. and professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

Since October, the military has been weakened by a series of territorial losses, troop defections, desertions and loss of manpower. Endemic corruption and poor command within its ranks mean the junta leadership may not have a clear idea of the situation on the ground across the country, including in Lashio, analysts say.

“Because of the corruption, Naypyidaw does not know how many forces it has… they have had a lot of desertions and defections that are going unreported,” Byrd said. “I’m not sure (junta chief) Min Aung Hlaing knows that that city has fallen into the hands of the opposition. I’m not sure his people are telling him that.”

In a recent address, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun appeared to counter claims of a weakened military, which he referred to by its local name, the Tatmadaw.

“As long as Myanmar exists, the Tatmadaw will exist. As long as we exist, Myanmar will live even stronger because we will safeguard your lives and your properties. Therefore, you all must work hand in hand to defend your country,” he said.

The anti-coup resistance in Myanmar was once considered a loose grouping of ill-equipped fighters, but recent successes, including the MNDAA’s push into Lashio, has shown a new level of coordination and capability, according to analysts.

“This phase of Operation 1027 has really shown a new level of interoperability and coordination between the ethnic resistance organizations and the political PDF resistance,” said Ruser, referring to the Three Brotherhood Alliance’s name for its ongoing offensive.

“Given the sort of snowballing gains by the resistance, and especially the Three Brotherhood Alliance over the last six to eight months, they’re now a really equipped force. They have artillery, they have plenty of drones, they have all sorts of capabilities that now allow them to really strike apart at qualified and static positions.”

For Khin Swe, the fighting in Lashio has left people divided.

“Chinese people in the town and young people who are in support of revolution are largely in favor of the Kokang group while the older generation, who don’t want war, blame the Kokang for their territorial invasion [and] are in support of the military,” she said.

Khin Swe said she is “saddened to see the destruction” in her hometown but she supports the “revolutionary groups defeating the junta.”

“I am happy and sad at the same time because I don’t know how we will rebuild our home. But the news of Lashio being captured gives us hope that one day in the near future we can go back home,” she said.

The children of two Russian intelligence agents, who were among the detainees released as part of a historic prisoner swap, only discovered their nationality when they were being flown to Moscow, the Kremlin said Friday.

Their parents, Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, were among 24 prisoners swapped as part of a complex, multi-country deal that saw high-profile American detainees and Russian dissidents freed in return.

The pair had been posing as an Argentine couple in Slovenia where they were convicted of spying. Their two children flew back with them on Thursday from Turkey.

The boy and girl “found out that they were Russian only when the plane took off from Ankara,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted them on the tarmac in Spanish as they didn’t speak Russian and didn’t even know who Putin was, according to Peskov.

“When the children came down the plane’s steps – they don’t speak Russian – and Putin greeted them in Spanish, he said ‘Buenas noches,’” Peskov said. “They asked their parents yesterday who it was that was meeting them, they didn’t even know who Putin was.”

After coming down the plane’s stairs, Dultseva, holding her tears, hugged Putin, who was standing on the red carpet rolled on the tarmac holding bouquets of flowers. Putin kissed Dultseva on the cheek and shoulder, and gave her and her daughter bouquets.

Putin briefly hugged Dultsev too and then the rest of the released Russians, before the group walked together on the red carpet away from the plane.

Thursday’s massive swap was the result of years of complicated behind-the-scenes negotiations involving the US, Russia, Belarus and Germany, ultimately leading Berlin to agree to Moscow’s key demand – releasing convicted Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov.

A total of eight people, including Krasikov, were swapped back to Russia in exchange for the release of 16 people who were held in Russian detention, including former US Marine Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other Americans.

Dultsev and Dultseva pleaded guilty to espionage in a court in Ljubljana on Wednesday and were sentenced to serve time in prison.

While living undercover in Slovenia, Dultsev posed as an IT businessman named Ludvig Gisch. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to more than a year and a half in prison, which the court said was equivalent to time spent. He was set to be deported to Russia and was banned from entering Slovenia for five years.

Dultseva posed as an art dealer and gallery owner and went by the name Maria Rosa Mayer Munos. She was also set to be deported.

During the call with journalists, Peskov also revealed some additional details of prisoner exchange negotiations between Russia and the United States, saying that they were primarily conducted through the FSB and the CIA.

When asked about other Russians detained abroad, Peskov said that “the fate of all our Russians who are held in custody abroad, in the United States, is a matter of constant concern for all our relevant agencies, which will continue the relevant work.”

Famine has officially been declared in at least one refugee camp sheltering hundreds of thousands of people in the Darfur region of Sudan, food security organizations announced, a stark warning of the cost being paid by the population after 15 months of civil war.

Famine has been ongoing in the Zanzam camp near the city of El Fasher since June, according to the United Nations-backed Famine Review Committee (FRC). The camp’s population has swollen to around half a million people since the onset of the current conflict.

Official declarations of famine are exceedingly rare. The FRC’s conclusion is only its third since the monitoring system was set up 20 years ago, and its first in more than 7 years. Declarations are often issued as a clarion call to unlock more money from the international community to prevent further deaths.

Although the finding is limited to the Zanzam camp, the report warned that “many other areas throughout Sudan remain at risk of famine as long as the conflict and limited humanitarian access continue.”

El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, has for months been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a rebel group that took up arms against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in April 2023. The conflict has laid waste to much of the country’s capital, Khartoum, and has since swept across other regions.

The war has transformed Sudan into what the UN has called “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.” More than 10 million people are internally displaced in the country, with more than 25 million people facing acute hunger.

Although Thursday’s report mark the first official declaration of famine, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned in May that people in Darfur had been forced to eat grass and peanut shells as the region was wracked by hunger.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which the FRC reports to, defines famine as “an extreme deprivation of food,” likely leading to starvation, death, destitution and extremely acute levels of malnutrition. A famine is declared if two adults or four children for every 10,000 people die each day due to outright starvation, or a combination of malnutrition and disease.

The last time the FRC declared a famine was in 2017, when 80,000 people in South Sudan faced famine conditions in parts of Unity State after three years of civil war. The only other declaration came in 2011, when nearly half a million people in Somalia experienced famine due to conflict, droughts and poor rain.

In Sudan, once considered a regional breadbasket, the FRC stressed that the main driver of the famine was not weather, but “conflict and lack of humanitarian access, both of which can immediately be rectified with the necessary political will.”

Another monitoring group, FEWS NET, the UN-backed Famine Early Warning Systems Network, also issued a famine declaration Thursday. Although this was also limited to the Zanzam camp, it warned famine could spread across the rest of El Fasher, which is home to an additional estimated 800,000 people.

Both groups warned the famine at Zanzam is likely to last at least until October and potentially much longer. To prevent this, the FRC urged the warring parties to “ensure the full delivery of services to mitigate the likelihood and severity of famine.”

“As the conflict is the predominant factor driving this famine, all means to reduce or resolve the underlying conflict between the parties involved in Sudan should be exhaustively explored,” it said.