Myanmar junta airstrikes demolish Rakhine State’s Ramree town

The southern Rakhine State town of Ramree was relatively peaceful until war reignited between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar military in mid-December last year. Since then, the Kyaukphyu District community of nearly 10,000 people has been largely displaced, with most residents seeking refuge elsewhere as fighting intensified and the junta indiscriminately deployed airstrikes and heavy artillery fire. The AA captured five towns from the military in northern Rakhine State and after fighting resumed in November 2023—Kyauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Myebon and Pauktaw—as well as Paletwa in neighbouring southern Chin State. The junta shifted its focus to maintaining control of Ramree, in Kyaukphyu District, located near a site where an overland pipeline project exports offshore oil and gas from Rakhine State to China. On February 21, the AA released photos showing how Ramree’s only functioning hospital had been reduced to rubble, reportedly bombed by military aircraft. Hla Oo, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, was a local healthcare worker saddened by the destruction of the facility. At 54, she was close to retiring, but has now lost her salary which supported her family, including her school-age son and blind 90-year-old mother. She also lost her home when its walls, roof and windows were destroyed in a February 14 airstrike, causing more than 20 million kyat (US$9,500) in damage. “I have lost the words to describe my feelings, except for endless sadness,” she added. “I am 54 years old and I don’t think I can ever rebuild it again.” When speaking to Myanmar Now by phone on the evening of February 22, Soe Thu—a pseudonym for a man living in a village outside of Ramree—declared, “There! Can you not hear it?” He referred to the sound of junta fighter jets soaring overhead mid-conversation. “My 9-year-old son just ran to hide in a ditch, screaming that ‘monsters’ are coming,” he said. The airstrikes do not necessarily correlate to whether there have been clashes in the area, Soe Thu explained. Sometimes, he said, the military aircraft drop food for personnel on the ground, and first clear the area with an aerial attack. He estimated that two-thirds of Ramree had been destroyed in under three months. “I witnessed it myself when I went to check the damage,” Soe Thu recalled. He has joined the committee to manage the affairs of around 180 internally displaced persons taking shelter in his village, and said he is facing difficulties accessing and distributing food as commodity prices soar and supplies grow scarce. The junta has blocked international aid agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from working in Rakhine State since Cyclone Mocha hit last May, also obstructing roads, phone and internet services, and the transport of basic goods. “There used to be many NGOs when times were good, but now when we need help, we can’t find anyone to help us,” Soe Thu added. The bombardments come day and night, said Phyu Thee, 51, whose name has also been changed for security reasons. “A rescue team leader just signalled with a whistle for the people to stay inside their houses, and now we are hiding,” she told Myanmar Now last week, noting that she had counted three fighter jets flying overhead. After initially fleeing to a Ramree monastery in December, Phyu Thee left her own home for a nearby village, bringing her two children and her husband, who suffers from severe arthritis and is confined to his bed. At the time of reporting, she said that her house remained intact, but several others around it had burnt down. “I don’t think it will survive as the military is bombarding every day… they are just destroying the entire town,” Phyu Thee lamented. Forty-eight-year-old Naing Naing—another pseudonym used for security reasons—said just two days after he left his family home in Ramree’s Ward 4, it was burnt down in a junta aerial attack targeting more than one dozen other residences. “After years of hard work, I built the house for my elderly parents, and now it is gone,” he told Myanmar Now, adding that he did not know how to rebuild the structure during such unstable times. Four of his relatives also lost their homes in Ward 4. “It is a very ugly thing to attack the houses of civilians who have nothing to do with the fighting,” Naing Naing said. “When I think about where to go when the war is over, I don't have a house or a place to go anymore, and that saddens me very deeply.” Phyu Thee, whose husband lives with a disability, said he has been unable to obtain necessary treatment for his condition since the junta has blocked shipments of medicine to rural areas, and Kyaukphyu town remains blockaded. She has resorted to collecting firewood and selling it for food and basic health items. “I can’t fully support my family with 3,000 kyat (less than $1.50) from selling firewood, but sometimes I get some help from neighbours who sympathise with me,” Phyu Thee explained. “All I want is for my husband to get better. I don’t care if my house gets burned down, because I am not alone in this.”

Myanmar junta airstrikes demolish Rakhine State’s Ramree town

Residents estimate that two-thirds of the Kyaukphyu District town’s homes have been destroyed, as well as the only hospital, forcing locals to take refuge in neighbouring villages to survive

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