One in all the strongest ethnic minority armed teams combating Myanmar’s military has claimed the seize of the last military outpost within the strategic western town of Maungdaw, gaining fleshy get an eye fixed on of the 271-kilometre-lengthy border with Bangladesh.
The seize by the Arakan Military makes the neighborhood’s get an eye fixed on of the northern phase of Rakhine tell total, and marks one other reach in its relate for self-rule there.
Rakhine has turn into a spotlight for Myanmar’s nationwide civil war, in which official-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority protection drive attempting for autonomy fight the country’s military rulers, who took vitality in 2021 after the military ousted the elected authorities of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the Arakan Military, suggested The Associated Press by text message from an undisclosed accumulate 22 situation late Monday (9 December) that his neighborhood had seized the last last military outpost in Maungdaw on Sunday (8 December).
Outpost commander Brig Gen Thurein Tun used to be captured whereas attempting to cruise the fight, Khaing Thukha acknowledged.
The anguish in Maungdaw would possibly presumably no longer be independently confirmed, with earn entry to to the salvage and cell phone services and products within the accumulate 22 situation mostly slit off.
Myanmar’s military authorities did now eventually observation.
Maungdaw, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of Mandalay, Myanmar’s 2d-largest city, has been the aim of an Arakan Military offensive since June. The neighborhood captured Paletwa and Buthidaung, two other cities on the border with Bangladesh, earlier this year.
Since November 2023, the Arakan Military has obtained get an eye fixed on of 11 of Rakhine’s 17 townships, alongside with one in neighbouring Chin tell.
Ann, a town in Rakhine that hosts the strategically important military headquarters overseeing the western phase of the country, looks to be on the verge of falling entirely to the Arakan Military.
The neighborhood posted on the Telegram messaging app late Friday that it had taken better than 30 military outposts, excluding the military’s western relate, which controls Rakhine and the southern phase of neighbouring Chin tell, as successfully as the country’s territorial waters within the Bay of Bengal.
Most modern combating in Rakhine has raised fears of a revival of organized violence in opposition to people of the Muslim Rohingya minority, linked to that which drove on the least 740,000 people of their neighborhood in 2017 to cruise to neighbouring Bangladesh for security.
The Arakan Military, which is the military soar of the Buddhist Rakhine ethnic neighborhood in Rakhine tell, the build they are the bulk and leer autonomy from Myanmar’s central authorities, denies the allegations, even though witnesses contain described the neighborhood’s actions to the AP and other media.
Rohingya contain lived in Myanmar for generations, nevertheless they are broadly regarded by many within the country’s Buddhist majority, including people of the Rakhine minority, as having illegally migrated from Bangladesh. The Rohingya face a tall amount of prejudice and are most continuously denied citizenship and other common rights.
The border between Myanmar and Bangladesh extends from land to the Naf River and offshore within the Bay of Bengal.
The Arakan Military acknowledged Sunday it had ordered the suspension of transport across the Naf River because police and native Muslims affiliated with the military had been attempting to interrupt out by boat to Bangladesh.
The rise up neighborhood has been accused of significant human rights violations, in particular animated its seize of town of Buthidaung in mid-Also can, when it used to be accused of forcing an estimated 200,000 residents, largely Rohingyas, to recede after which setting fire to loads of the structures. It used to be accused of attacking Rohingya civilians fleeing combating in Maungdaw in August.
The Arakan Military is furthermore phase of an armed ethnic alliance that launched an offensive in northeastern Myanmar last year and obtained strategic territory alongside the border with China.
