Fighting breaks out near Chinese-owned pipeline in Kyaukphyu, Rakhine State

Six locals were injured when fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and junta forces broke out near Chinese and other foreign-owned development projects in Kyaukphyu Township, Rakhine State on Thursday. The confrontation occurred near Ma La Kyun village, according to a statement issued by the AA on Thursday night. Police Battalion 32, which is stationed nearby, fired artillery into the area of battle near the village, which is located near an onshore gas terminal operated by the South Korean firm POSCO international in Kyaukphyu, the AA statement said. Kyaukphyu is also the starting point of a Chinese-operated pipeline that carries gas inland to Chinese refineries. The South Korea-based firm POSCO International owns a 51 percent stake in the Shwe gas project, with 15 percent owned by the regime-controlled Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise and the remainder owned by various Indian and South Korean firms. The project involves piping gas from natural gas fields in the Bay of Bengal to a terminal operated by POSCO International in Kyaukphyu. The Shwe gas project operates partly in an area designated as the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ), a development project in which the Chinese state-owned entity Chinese International Trust and Investment Committee owns a 70 percent stake, with Myanmar authorities owning the remaining 30 percent. As planned, the Kyaukphyu SEZ will include a deep sea port on Maday Island, located in coastal waters some five miles southeast of Kyaukphyu, as well as a second port on Ramree Island—where Kyaukphyu is located—a bridge linking the two ports, and overland transport routes from Kyaukphyu to Mandalay. The AA has been carrying out an offensive against the Myanmar military, mostly in northern Rakhine State, since mid-November 2023. The Rakhine ethnic armed organisation later succeeded in capturing the town of Paletwa in neighbouring Chin State from junta forces in mid-January, then taking over the town of Pauktaw, some 10 miles east of the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe. The AA is a member of the Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed organisations, along with two other groups: the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, made up mostly of ethnically Kokang fighters, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, whose membership is mostly of Ta’ang—also called Palaung—ethnicity. The Brotherhood Alliance carried out a coordinated offensive—dubbed Operation 1027—against the Myanmar Army between late October and January, concentrating most of its attacks on military targets in northern Shan State. Although a Chinese government-brokered temporary ceasefire with junta forces on January 11, which largely brought the clashes between the Brotherhood Alliance and junta forces to a halt in Shan State, the AA has continued to fight the Myanmar military in Rakhine State and Chin State’s Paletwa Township, the areas where it is historically strongest. During the clashes between the AA and junta troops in Kyaukphyu Township on Thursday, shelling from a junta naval base began at around 2pm, resulting in injuries to six local civilians in villages near Kyaukphyu as they returned home from buying groceries. Among the six injured people was Soe Soe, a woman in her 40s who asked that her real name be withheld for security reasons, who lives in a village near the Shwe gas pipeline. A few miles from her village, Soe Soe and 30 others returning from a shopping trip were stopped at a roadblock, which had been set up near the village of Auchay for safety reasons. Soe Soe said she and her companions were stopped at around 3pm, heard a shell exploding, and saw people trying to flee the area. Just as they stood up to run, a second shell fell and detonated in front of nearby house, injuring Soe Soe and five others. “We might have been killed by the artillery by now if we hadn’t hunkered down under the house,” Soe Soe said. “As we heard the loud explosion in front of us, we all ran frantically. But then I found I couldn’t run. I felt a pinch of numbness in my back, and when I touched it there was blood on my hands,” she said. The injured people were rushed to nearby medical facilities. Five people are still at Zinchaung hospital, located some 30 miles outside Kyaukphyu by road, and still in need of further treatment. “I feel better today, it only hurts when I walk,” Soe Soe said. Analysts previously believed the area near Kyaukphyu was relatively safe from conflict due to armed groups’ caution about putting projects backed by Chinese and other foreign investment at risk. Political analyst Than Soe Naing offered the opinion that fighting had broken out in Kyaukphyu chiefly for tactical reasons, with the AA aiming to capture or surround the Myanmar military’s nearby naval base. While the AA was likely unable to avoid provoking clashes near the Chinese project in pursuing these tactics, “I don’t think it wants to cause it any direct harm,” Than Soe Naing said. He added that the military and the AA will both likely seek to avoid jeopardising Chinese investors’ interests in future. In an interview with BBC Burmese on Thursday, AA military chief General Twan Mrat Naing said the AA will fight until it has taken full control of Rakhine State, but has no plans to declare “independence.” “If we don't get what we ultimately desire, we will have to come up with an alternative approach,” the AA leader said. The AA also carried out attacks targeting the naval base near Chinese pipelines and the SEZ project in another part of Kyaukphyu Township in January. Later in the month, clashes broke out in the town of Ramree, located some 40 miles southeast of Kyaukphyu, which is on the same island’s northwest tip. Speaking on Friday morning, Soe Soe said conditions were calm compared to the previous day, but that explosions could still be heard near her village and people were preparing to leave the area. “I am packing all my belongings to go somewhere safer tonight,” she said.

Fighting breaks out near Chinese-owned pipeline in Kyaukphyu, Rakhine State

Clashes between AA and Myanmar military drew closer to Chinese and foreign-owned development projects and pipelines as fighting broke out near the port town of Kyaukphyu

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