Assaults continue on junta’s last remaining Bangladesh-Myanmar border outpost

Clashes are ongoing in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State between the Arakan Army (AA) and regime forces defending the last remaining border police station and deployed throughout the township, locals said. While some junta forces have retreated under several days of assaults by AA forces on the Border Guard Police (BGP) Battalion 5 station, the last remaining junta position in Maungdaw Township, enough have remained to defend the outpost. Clashes between AA and junta forces—including both regular army troops and junta-trained militias—have also continued in several other places throughout the coastal township, according to a source connected with the AA. Local civilians in Minbya in front of a house destroyed amid clashes between the junta and AA forces in May (AFP) Capturing Maungdaw Township would effectively give control of the entire 168-mile Bangladesh-Myanmar border to the AA—Rakhine State’s largest and most powerful ethnic armed organisation, which has been fighting to drive all regime forces out of Rakhine State since last November. “Battalion 5 is still putting up a fight and hasn’t fallen yet, but many of them have retreated, and some of the ones who withdrew have come back,” the source said. According to a local civilian, units of Rohingya men, whom the military forcibly recruited before training and arming them, were also active in the township. He added that airstrikes and clashes were ongoing all over the township. “A junta fighter jet dropped six bombs around the Border Guard Force battalion base,” he said. AA fighters have now overrun nearly all junta positions in Maungdaw Township, including towns and village tracts known as pro-junta strongholds such as Myin Hlut, Taung Pyo, and Ka Nyin Chaung. The Border Guard Police administrative office in Kyee Kan Pyin village, Maungdaw Township, in April 2021 (Myanmar Now) The anti-junta fighters captured the Ka Nyin Chaung commercial zone--one of two vital crossings used for border trade with Bangladesh—on July 14, inflicting heavy casualties on the force of over 200 regime troops stationed there before forcing their retreat. A month later, the AA issued a warning to civilian residents of Maungdaw Township to evacuate before they initiated offensive operations against the remaining junta bases in the township.While they have lost most of their bases to the AA, according to local sources, soldiers and junta-trained fighters are still at large in the township and have been capturing civilians to use them as human shields. Last month, the armed group also seized control of Buthidaung Township, which borders Maungdaw Township to the east. With the remaining BGP base, junta troops, and junta-trained fighters in Maungdaw Township, it remains the only part of northern Rakhine State not under the AA’s control. The AA took over Buthidaung Township, which borders Maungdaw Township to the east, in May. Buthidaung is one of nine Rakhine State townships where the group has seized control, in addition to Paletwa Township in Chin State. The armed group is also fighting fiercely in southern Rakhine State’s Thandwe Township, where locals say assaults are ongoing on military forces at the Maung Shwe Lay naval base and Gyeik Taw ward. “The military is retaliating against the AA's attacks with heavy artillery and airstrikes,” a source connected to the AA said. Pauktaw locals fleeing after the resumption of fighting between AA and junta forces in November 2023 (AFP) The AA has already succeeded in capturing and holding strategic positions in Thandwe Township, including two battalion bases and the city airport, despite the regime’s deployment of reinforcements to the area. Capturing the naval base would grant them effective control of the town, local sources said. The AA also claims to have besieged or attacked major military targets in Rakhine State’s Ann, Taungup, and Kyaukpyu townships as well as army and naval command headquarters in Sittwe, the state capital. Local sources said that the military council has deployed reinforcements to strengthen defences in those areas.

Assaults continue on junta’s last remaining Bangladesh-Myanmar border outpost

Although the Arakan Army has gained the upper hand in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State, army troops and junta-trained militias are reportedly still active in the area and taking civilians hostage

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