New Mandala Updates

Despite a reluctant reception from locals and diminishing humanitarian support from international donors, there are indications at the beginning of 2025 that some Rohingya are in Indonesia for the...

The crisis in Myanmar is a fundamental struggle over the identity and structure of the nation-state. Underpinning this conflict are ethnonational politics that are driving war but also create avenues...

One would think that Myanmar’s revolutionary moment would create relationships of solidarity between local NGOS performing essential work and their international donors. But the authors’ research...

NINO VIARTASIWI & ANTJE MISSBACH - 04 DEC, 2023 Every year when the monsoon season in Bangladesh ends, risky journeys of Rohingya refugees take off en route to Malaysia. Not all passengers who embark...

DAHLIA SIMANGAN AND RAIHAN A. YUSOPH On 23 May it will have been six years since the Maute group waved the Islamic State (IS) flag over the Islamic city of Marawi in the Philippines. The Maute group...

IVY HE More than 70% of the population in Indonesia live within 100km of one or more of the country’s 130 active volcanoes—that’s a staggering 175 million people. 8.6 million Indonesians live within...

AUNG OAK AWW In the cold and dark winter nights, refugees sleep beside the Moei river with no shelter or blankets. Their only resources are donations from regional civil society organisations...

NEIL MADULARA MARTIN, PRIMITIVO III CABANES & GENARA P. TRINIDAD - 23 JUL, 2021 Together with fellow researchers from Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (Iligan City, The...

PRIMITIVO III “PRIME” CABANES RAGANDANG From most of the Bisayan-speaking regions across the Philippines, “ulahi sa duyan” (literally, late in the cradle) is an idiomatic expression that best...

Since the end of 2018 approximately 400 refugees have died in Nduga Refugee Camps. Indonesian authorities have not taken a leading role in dealing with this problem. How can the Indonesian...

KHIN KHIN MRA - 13 OCT, 2020 Myanmar’s second national election since its transition from military rule, scheduled for 8 November 2020, is critical for the young democracy. In Rakhine state, an...

NURSYAZWANI NURSYAZWANI AND ELLIOTT PRASSE-FREEMAN - 12 JUN, 2020 As the battle against COVID-19 rages in Malaysia, a new population has become collateral damage: Rohingya refugees. A terrified...

Two children were killed after gunmen linked to the Islamic State (IS) attacked a village where soldiers and community elders were meeting in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, the military said...

BIANCA YSABELLE FRANCO “Marawi will rise as a prosperous city again”. This was President Rodrigo Duterte’s promise to the families who continue to suffer the cost of the Marawi siege. Exactly two...

YASMIRA MONER The year 2019 marked a new era of peace in Southern Philippines. After decades of shoot-and-talk struggle between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), 1.6...

NICOLE CURATO & YVONNE SU Exactly five years ago, Typhoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) ravaged some of the poorest provinces of Central Philippines. The strongest storm that made landfall in recent...

By Luke Lischin “The peace table is now wide open for everybody,” declared Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza to mark the National Peace Consciousness Month in the Philippines. “This table is...

Luke Lischin Nine months since the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) retook the city of Marawi from a coalition of Islamic State (IS) affiliated groups, resulting in the deaths of at least 802...

The Philippines’ poor track record in reconstructing cities affected by disaster and conflict is manifest in Marawi’s case, a year since the siege. Dakila Kim P. Yee - 23 May, 2018 Exactly a year...

YVONNE SU, LADYLYN MANGADA & JESSA TURALBA - 27 APR, 2018 Tacloban City’s 'Home of the Happiest People' tourism campaign is a cover up of five years of devastation in a disaster-stricken city. The...