Rescue workers struggle to assist victims of Thandwe attack as clashes continue

Fighting in southern Rakhine State’s Thandwe Township is making it difficult to assist victims of a junta artillery attack that killed at least 10 civilians earlier this week, according to relief workers. Nearly 20,000 civilians have reportedly fled the area north of the township’s administrative centre since the deadly attack on the village of Linthi on Tuesday. The village and others in the area—including Mying Sai Maw, Pyin Yaung, Pauktaw, and Shwe Hlay—are all home to the state’s Kaman Muslim minority. “We tried to rescue three injured women by boat, but only one, a woman in her 60s, survived. The other two died on the way to the hospital,” said a rescue worker from Thandwe who asked to remain anonymous. The woman who made it out alive is currently receiving treatment for a shattered leg, he added. Both her right arm and part of her left hand were torn off by an artillery shell that slammed into her home, instantly killing her mother and daughter. “She is doing fine now, after receiving a transfusion of four bottles of blood,” said the rescue worker. At around 10pm on Tuesday, a rescue team arrived in the village in search of survivors, travelling by boat because roads in the area were closed due to the conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA). Finding the three badly injured women, the team put them aboard the boat for the three-hour journey back to Thandwe. the rescue worker told Myanmar Now. “The two who didn’t make it bled to death,” he said, adding that one of the women had lost an entire leg. She was survived by her husband and three-year-old daughter. The rescue team also managed to recover the bodies of some of those who were killed on the spot, burying them in another village the next day. Travel has been severely restricted in much of Rakhine State since the AA began its offensive late last year. The ethnic armed group has captured eight townships in the state, as well as Paletwa in neighbouring Chin State, since mid-November. This has made it difficult to obtain basic medical supplies, according to the relief worker. “We’re having trouble getting the medicine she needs,” he said of the woman who was rescued on Tuesday. Another person involved in the relief effort said that the mobile phone and internet blackout imposed by the regime in the state has also complicated matters. “The lack of information makes travelling to different areas on rescue missions very challenging,” said the relief worker, who has been distributing food and water to around 300 displaced people sheltering in villages near Thandwe. A resident of Linthi said that at least eight houses in the village of around 250 households were destroyed when they were hit by artillery shells at around 7pm on Tuesday. The dead were members of three families, he added. Another man living in Mying Sai Maw, a village a short walk away from Linthi, said that most people living in the area have fled as clashes continued through the week. “We were afraid of the shelling, so we decided to flee amid the heavy fighting, crossing a deep stream to get away,” he said. Thandwe Township is regarded as strategically important to the regime as it borders both Bago and Ayeyarwady regions. The current fighting is taking place near the site of the Tha Htay Chaung hydropower project, which is due to be completed in the 2025-26 fiscal year. Thandwe is also the birthplace of Kyu Kyu Hla, wife of junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.

Rescue workers struggle to assist victims of Thandwe attack as clashes continue

Travel and communications restrictions imposed by the regime across most of Rakhine State have also complicated efforts to help displaced civilians

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