Myanmar’s sweeping internet blackouts drive rebels, medics, scammers to satellite service
Voice of America
FILE - Starlink satellite antennas are seen at the Internationale Funkausstellung, the international trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances, Aug. 31, 2023, in Berlin, Germany. Across Myanmar, rebel commanders and aid workers are turning to Starlink satellites. FILE - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a payload of Starlink satellites for a high-speed low earth orbit internet constellation, lifts off from launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, July 17, 2022.
Across war-torn Myanmar, rebel commanders, aid workers and cyber-scammers alike are turning to billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites to stay in touch with each other and with the outside world amid some of the most severe internet restrictions.
Congolese police officers board trucks after an enrollment of civilians, police officers, and former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo who allegedly decided to join the M23 movement voluntarily in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, Feb. 22, 2025.
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Members of the M23 movement monitor the area following the takeover of the city at the Place de l'Independance in Bukavu on Feb. 20, 2025. M23 rebels guard outside the South Kivu province administrative office, at the center of east Congo's second-largest city, Bukavu, Feb. 16, 2025.