Arakan Army intensifies push to oust last Myanmar junta troops from Maungdaw

The Arakan Army (AA) says that it is intensifying its efforts to capture the last remaining junta outpost in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township now that it has taken full control of its administrative centre. The group said that it defeated the last regime forces stationed in the town of Maungdaw three weeks ago and is now focussed on taking the Border Guard Police Battalion 5 base on the border with Bangladesh. To defend the outpost, which is located about half a mile from the town, the military has been carrying out relentless airstrikes, according to a Maungdaw resident. “The AA has the base surrounded on all sides, so there has been non-stop bombing in recent days. They’ve destroyed at least 10 houses here in town,” said the resident. He added that in addition to being hit by airstrikes, Maungdaw is now littered with landmines left behind by junta troops. The AA has begun removing them, he said. A merchant based in Pauktaw, near the state capital Sittwe, suggested that the AA’s success in Maungdaw could bring some relief to the rest of Rakhine State, which has been suffering from a scarcity of goods due to junta blockades of land and water routes to other parts of Myanmar. “If all of Maungdaw is completely captured by the AA, trade with Bangladesh will open up and maybe things will improve,” he said. Meanwhile, civilians in Maungdaw say they also have other safety concerns, after a man and three teenaged boys went missing on Monday while they were fishing in a creek near their village. “They must have been abducted. Villagers have looked everywhere for them, but all they’ve been able to find is their footprints, their hats, and some other belongings,” a resident of the area told Myanmar Now. He added that many suspect they were taken away by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a group known to operate in the Mayu mountain range near Thone Creek, where the four villagers were fishing before they disappeared. The AA has accused ARSA and two other Rohingya groups, the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation and the Arakan Rohingya Army, of receiving training from Myanmar’s military and fighting alongside its forces in northern Rakhine State. Many Rohingya civilians have been killed or displaced since fighting in Maungdaw began to intensify in August, including as many as 200 who died in a single massacre allegedly perpetrated by the AA. In late August, the group said that it had taken dozens of junta troops prisoner in Maungdaw and killed around 100 soldiers and Rohingya fighters. As the AA makes its final push for Maungdaw, it is also engaged in fierce fighting in two other townships—Ann in central Rakhine State and Gwa, in the state’s far south. Currently, the AA controls Mrauk-U, Minbya, Myebon, Kyauktaw, Pauktaw, Ponnagyun, Rathedaung, Buthidaung, Ramree, and Thandwe townships in Rakhine State and Paletwa in Chin State.

Arakan Army intensifies push to oust last Myanmar junta troops from Maungdaw

The group has already captured the township’s administrative centre, but is still fighting to take a nearby border guard outpost

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