More civilians displaced, killed as clashes continue between AA and military

The names of sources in this article have been changed to protect their safety. Ongoing airstrikes, shelling, and fierce battles between the Arakan Army (AA) and junta forces in Rakhine State and neighbouring Paletwa Township, Chin State, continue to displace and cause hardship for civilians. Battles broke out south of Kyaukphyu on Monday morning and continued throughout the day, a displaced local resident said. As the clashes raged on Ramree Island some nine miles from Kyaukphyu—located at the northernmost tip of the coastal island—heavy artillery fired on the area of fighting from nearby bases manned by junta police battalion 32 and the army’s light infantry battalion (LIB) 542, according to the local woman. “They’re still shelling now, and only pausing for about 30 minutes between barrages. We had to try to escape the area during one of those pauses but the shelling started up again before we were halfway out of the village,” the displaced woman said on Tuesday afternoon. Two heavy artillery shells fell inside Ku Lar Bar village, and locals from Ku Lar Bar, Min Tet Taung, and Pyaing Sayt Kay villages were displaced. The Myanma Post and Telecommunications (MPT) signal in the area was also completely disconnected starting at around noon, the woman said. More shelling near Kyaukphyu Five locals had also been injured in artillery strikes in the area on February 1 when junta personnel stationed at the Danyawadi naval base outside Kyaukphyu fired off shells during during a clash near Pyaing Sayt Kay village. Chee Daung, a resident of Ku Lar Bar, said that once fighting broke out again, junta forces had continued shelling battle sites near his village until 10:00pm on Monday. “They were pounding the place with artillery until 10:00pm last night. It was so loud I felt like my eardrums would break,” Chee Daung said. He added that hundreds of villagers have fled to safer areas since the fighting broke out near Ku Lar Bar on Monday, with more trucks full of villagers leaving on Tuesday morning. “I have sent my child to a safer village, but I can’t leave yet because I’d have to leave cattle and other things that I can’t easily move,” Chee Daung said. “I am worried my cows will get hurt if I leave them without anyone to look after them. But if the situation gets worse, I will just have to leave. Nothing is more important than life.” The AA attacked the junta’s Danyawadi naval base—located near Thit Poke Taung village, Kyaukphyu Township—twice using projectile weapons in January of this year. Amid the subsequent clashes, the entire area around Kyaukphyu and Ramree Island has been subject to severe restrictions since mid-November, when the junta banned travel between towns by land or water, as well as placing other limits on people’s movements and forbidding fishing within Kyaukphyu Township. Kyaukphyu Township is the site of the starting point of an important gas pipeline, as well as the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, a commercial and industrial development project with heavy investment from foreign—especially Chinese—stakeholders. When completed, the planned project will include not only a deep sea port located on Maday Island southeast of Kyaukphyu, but an additional port on Ramree Island, a bridge connecting the two ports, and overland routes to carry importeds inland to Mandalay Region. Clashes near Kyaukphyu have also impacted Ramree Township, located to the south on the same island. AA traps junta ships in Minbya Farther north in Minbya Township, which is currently under the full control of the AA, clashes have continued to break out between the AA’s occupying forces and junta warships moving through the local waterways. The AA trapped and incapacitated three warships in a battle in the river near Kyar Ye Byin village some five miles from Minbya. Two more junta ships then advanced down the river that evening on a rescue mission for the crews of the trapped ships, resulting in further battles. “There’s video showing a heavy artillery shell directly hitting the armory [on a junta warship]. My friends saw it too,” a Minbya Township resident told Myanmar Now. “One of the ships was completely incapacitated,” the local man said. In another battle with the AA that resulted in the sinking of three junta ships last week, junta officers up to the rank of brigadier general were killed, according to a statement released by the AA with photos showing the destroyed vessels. Allegations have circulated that dozens to hundreds of people aboard—including civilian family members of junta personnel—were killed when the ships sank, but the allegations and exact casualty figures remain unconfirmed. Airstrikes in Paletwa, Myebon, Ann townships Junta airstrikes in Paletwa Township, Chin State, which borders Rakhine State and is currently under the AA’s control, resulted in the deaths of two civilians—including one eight-year-old child—and injured four others on Sunday. The Brotherhood Alliance—a tripartite grouping of three anti-regime ethnic armed organisations of which the AA is a member—announced that some junta prisoners of war in AA custody were also killed and injured during the attacks, but further details on the airstrike’s victims have yet to be verified. Junta personnel strafed the ground and fired at civilians with a machine gun from the aircraft during the attack, according to a statement released by the AA and the Brotherhood Alliance. While located outside of Rakhine State, Paletwa Township is located on its northern border and is historically one of the AA’s strongholds. The AA began assaulting Paletwa Township in mid-November, timing their operations to coincide with the Brotherhood Alliance’s Operation 1027 offensive launched a few weeks earlier in northern Shan State, and finally took full control of the township in January. The Paletwa Autonomous District Council, made up of Chin anti-junta organisations including the Chin National Front, has said that a majority of the town of Paletwa’s civilian residents remained displaced, although some have resettled in the town since the AA took control. “It’s hard to estimate the number of people who have gone back home to the town but I’m sure it’s low. Almost everyone is still displaced and wary of the risks,” the chair of the council remarked. The air force previously attacked Paletwa Township’s Hone village in late January, killing seven civilians, but the military council has yet to issue any public statements acknowledging airstrikes in Paletwa. The Brotherhood Alliance and AA issued a statement saying the military had also carried out airstrikes in Rakhine State’s Myebon and Ann townships on Sunday evening, but casualty figures and other details remain unconfirmed. Withdrawal from Myebon According to Pe Than, a political analyst and former member of parliament representing Rakhine State’s Myebon Township, around 100 junta troops had been spotted heading in the direction of Kyaukphyu on Monday and appeared to be abandoning the township. “They left at around 1 or 2am, going by ship. There aren’t many junta personnel left in Myebon; only around 100 police officers and soldiers combined. I think all the police officers of Bamar ethnicity left for Myebon while the Rakhine police officers fled to Kyaukphyu,” Pe Than said. Junta soldiers have abandoned their posts in a similar way recently. Fleeing on ships from the Yaw Chaung Bridge tactical base in Magway Region’s Seikphyu Township on January 26, soldiers burned the weapons and ammunition they left behind, including two 122mm Howitzers. Hundreds of junta troops have also reportedly fled to India and Bangladesh from Rakhine and Chin states. Junta deploys air power, artillery, warships as it loses ground Fierce battles are also still breaking out in Rakhine State’s Ramree, Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Rathedaung, and Ponnagyun townships. Despite heavy artillery support from the nearby Kha Maung Seik tactical base, fighting near Aung Tha Pyay village in northern Maungdaw township on Sunday morning resulted in the deaths of seven junta soldiers, according to a statement issued by the Brotherhood Alliance. Another clash broke out on Sunday near Inn Phauk village in Buthidaung Township. At the same time, junta warships fired on villages around Ramree, with army troops at a base near the Thein Taung pagoda providing artillery support, according to locals. Another warship some 15 miles away near Sin Gaung village, Thandwe Township, also fired at least 20 shells, they said. The military has managed to maintain full control over only three townships in Rakhine State—Gwa, Manaung, and Thandwe—and is routinely losing bases to assaults by the AA elsewhere. On the defensive in the state, junta forces have relied increasingly on air and artillery strikes in its clashes with the AA, as well as attacks from warships navigating the state’s rivers and coastal waters.

More civilians displaced, killed as clashes continue between AA and military

Losing ground in Rakhine State and Paletwa Township, the junta has increasingly resorted to using air power, warships, and heavy artillery strikes in clashes against the Arakan Army

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