Autor: global-affair

Responding to news that the leader of the National Union for Total Revolution of Angola (UNTRA) Serrote José de Oliveria – whose health has been deteriorating since being held in arbitrary detention since 28 July – has begun a hunger strike to protest his unlawful detention, Amnesty International’s Deputy-Director for East and Southern Africa, Flavia Mwangovya, said:

“Reports that Serrote José de Oliveria has gone on hunger strike and that his health is deteriorating is extremely concerning. Angolan authorities must allow him immediate access to all necessary medical care, and unless he is charged with a recognizable criminal offence, they must immediately release him.

Angolan authorities must allow Serrote José de Oliveria immediate access to all necessary medical care, and unless he is charged with a recognizable criminal offence, they must immediately release him.

Flavia Mwangovya,
Amnesty International’s Deputy-Director for East and Southern Africa

“His continued arbitrary detention is an ongoing injustice that points to the Angolan authorities’ growing intolerance towards those with dissenting voices.”

Background

On 28 July, officers believed to be linked to the Angolan Criminal Investigation Services, arrested Serrote José de Oliveira while he was filming a live video with fellow activists during the first day of a protest against rising fuel prices in Luanda, Angola’s capital. Serrote José de Oliveira was shot in the left leg during the incident. He has been held in arbitrary detention at Calomboloca Prison ever since.   

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Responding to reports of a Myanmar military air strike on a hospital in Rakhine State on Wednesday night, international Human Rights Day, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher Joe Freeman said:

“Nowhere and no one is safe from the violence of the Myanmar military, which is widening its repression ahead of an election later this month which has been marked by human rights abuses. The latest attack on a hospital must be investigated as a violation of humanitarian law.

“Bombing a hospital on a global day dedicated to human rights shows the utter disregard that the Myanmar military has for civilians. Harrowing images of the aftermath of this attack, shared with Amnesty, indicate this was yet another air strike.

“The prevalence of such strikes by the Myanmar military in 2025, which have reached record levels this year, underline the urgent need to suspend jet fuel, weapons and dual-goods shipments to the country.

“Almost five years after the military coup, the international community must take concerted, targeted and effective action to hold perpetrators to account in Myanmar, including the much-needed and long-overdue referral by the UN Security Council of the full situation in all of Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.”

Background

The Myanmar military bombed the Mrauk-U General Hospital in Rakhine State on the evening of 10 December, according to multiple media reports, which suggest that two bombs were dropped.

According to information from the political wing of the Arakan Army, a resistance group that took Mrauk-U from Myanmar military control in 2024, 33 civilians were killed, including a baby. About 80 people were injured.

Photos and video of the damage to the hospital as well as the corpses of the victims were shared with Amnesty International. Footage of the damage, which was verified by Amnesty’s Evidence Lab, is consistent with an air strike.

Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law and can only be targeted if being used for committing acts harmful to the enemy outside of their humanitarian functions.

Since a ceasefire broke down in 2023, the Arakan Army has taken control of 14 out of 17 townships in Rakhine State, where members of the Rohingya minority have been trapped in the conflict.

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