Junta airstrikes batter AA-occupied town in Rakhine State for two days

Bombing raids by the Myanmar air force injured at least 10 civilians this week in Minbya Township, Rakhine State, which has been under the control of the Arakan Army (AA) since February. Warplanes started bombing and strafing the Minbya Myoma Police Station and the municipal offices in the township’s urban centre at around 10:30am on Tuesday, with raids continuing into the next day, according to Minbya residents. On Tuesday afternoon, a junta warship fired on Minbya’s Tha Pyay Nyo Ward from the Lemro River using heavy artillery, according to one resident. One of the shells landed and detonated among civilian houses, starting fires and causing injuries to the residents, he said. "There was no longer any fighting here, so the situation had calmed. But they dropped bombs anyway,” the man added. “The planes came two days in a row. It was quite frightening. It was as if they purposely dropped bombs on peaceful, civilian areas while there was fighting on the ground.” The AA is part of the three-member Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed organisations, which initiated the Operation 1027 offensive against the Myanmar military in northern Shan State in October 2023. Less than a month later, the AA—Rakhine State’s largest and most powerful ethnic armed organisation—began attacking the military’s bases in Rakhine and Chin states, capturing dozens of junta bases over the next three months. AA troops with two multiple launch rocket systems seized from junta base camps after the AA captured Minbya Township in early February. (Photo – AA) After the AA announced on February 7 that its fighters had succeeded in capturing most of the military’s bases in Minbya, Kyauktaw, and Mrauk-U townships in northern Rakhine State, Minbya residents displaced by clashes between the military and AA returned to their homes. Since then, however, the junta air force has carried out frequent airstrikes on civilian areas in Minbya and other AA-occupied towns, forcing residents to flee for safety once again. On February 27, the military conducted an airstrike on a hospital in Thay Kan village, Minbya Township, injuring at least 15 people including both medical workers and patients. On March 1, the air force bombed Kin Seik village on the northern edge of Minbya’s urban centre, injuring two civilians. A young resident of Minbya said he had fled after fighting broke out in the town in November 2023, then stayed in rural areas of Rakhine State for five months. An airstrike occurred only around a month after he chose to return home. “At first, we had to live off our savings in the countryside. When our money ran out, we didn’t get any aid, so we had to return to the town. It was the only way we could think of earning anything from business, so we came back,” he said. A hospital building damaged by a junta airstrike in Minbya Township on February 27 (Photo: AA) Locals have also said Rakhine State’s rural areas are facing shortages of food and water, making the prospect of staying there for the long term impractical. “In rural areas, water is scarce for internally displaced people and food prices are very high. In the villages where I stayed, there was no work for us. Although some areas receive social aid, we never received any. Everyone is suffering,” the Minbya resident said. Nevertheless, people in Minbya are deliberating whether to flee again because of the airstrikes, he added. Of Rakhine State’s 17 townships, the junta now has full control over only three: Gwa, Toungup and Munaung. In the remaining 14, they have lost control to the AA or are struggling to fend off the ethnic armed organisation’s ongoing, coordinated offensive. Minbya on May 2 (Photo: Supplied) After capturing the Kyein Chaung military outpost in Maungdaw Township on April 12, the AA announced that it planned to target major junta headquarters such as the Myanmar army’s operations command offices in the towns of Buthidaung and Toungup, as well as the regional military command office in the town of Ann. Despite the intensity of the AA’s attacks in Rakhine State, the military regime is unable to spare enough ground troops from other parts of the country to provide sufficient reinforcement to its units in Rakhine State and has instead resorted to using airstrikes and artillery fire from naval ships. To address its shortage of manpower, the military regime reactivated and has begun implementing a mandatory conscription law this year requiring up to five years’ military service from men of eligible age throughout the country. Although the junta has generally suppressed information about the fighting in Rakhine State, they have deliberately circulated propaganda with photos and testimony purportedly showing popular opposition to the AA in the state.

Junta airstrikes batter AA-occupied town in Rakhine State for two days

After previously fleeing the town and returning, Minbya residents said that further air raids might force them to leave again despite the difficult conditions in the countryside

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