Thandwe struggles as fighting nears, Myanmar army blocks roads and waterways

The local economy is foundering in southern Rakhine State’s Thandwe Township amid fighting that has already pushed many residents to seek safer conditions elsewhere, locals said. The streets of the coastal town of Ngapali on the Bay of Bengal were nearly empty on Friday morning as the town’s inhabitants woke up to the sounds of artillery fire. “The battle seemed to be very intense yesterday. There were nonstop sounds of artillery throughout the day and night. Nearly all shops in Gyeik Taw Ward closed, and we couldn’t find any vendors or shops to sell us breakfast this morning,” a resident of the ward said on Friday. With banks, shops, and restaurants having closed and civilians seeking refuge elsewhere, the town is now still and nearly silent, locals said. “All banks except the Myanmar Economic Bank closed three weeks ago,” said one Thandwe resident who operates a betel shop. “Even with money, we can’t buy goods because there are shortages. I’ve searched all over town for betel leaves but couldn’t find them anywhere. And prices are skyrocketing. We could face more shortages and malnutrition if this continues.” Fighting erupted in Rakhine State in November 2023 when the Arakan Army (AA, more recently rebranded as the Arakha Army) initiated assaults on the Myanmar military in coordination with the anti-junta Operation 1027 offensive launched by their allies the previous month in northern Shan State. The AA, which is the state’s largest and most powerful ethnic armed organisation, has so far taken control of nine of Rakhine State’s seventeen townships: Buthidaung, Kyauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Myebon, Pauktaw, Ponnagyun, Ramree, and Rathedaung. They have also captured Paletwa Township in southern Chin State. Rakhine State’s key industries including fishing, tourism, and farming have been suffering for six months due to the military’s obstruction of transport routes to and from other parts of the country amid ongoing clashes with the AA. “All businesses are affected by the fighting. Farmers can’t even plough their paddy fields in the growing season,” another Thandwe resident said, in reference to both the danger from artillery shelling and the scarcity of fuel for tractors. “There is a fishing ban in effect, and the beaches are practically empty, with very few or no visitors.” Gyeik Taw Ward, a relatively populous area of Ngapali with around 3,000 households, is one of Rakhine State’s major commercial fishing hubs. “This is the peak season for catching prawns and lobsters, but all ships are prohibited from going out to sea. The navy said they will fire on us if we go out,” a fisherman living in the ward said. “And even if we had the chance to make a catch, we couldn’t get a good price for it. We wouldn’t be able to refrigerate it because of electricity blackouts, nor transport it to other places,” he added. Ko Naung, a tuk-tuk driver in his 30s from Gyeik Taw, said that since last November, the impact of the war on Thandwe residents’ livelihoods has been profoundly disruptive. “My income has dropped sharply, and fuel has gotten expensive. It costs 13,500 kyat (US $4.90) per litre. An egg costs around 800 kyat (US $0.29) and it’s almost impossible to find one in the market,” he said. Amid this deterioration, many Thandwe Township residents have gone to other parts of the state to seek better economic opportunities as well as basic security. “My parents and younger sister are in Gwa now. I’ve stayed behind to look after our family home. At least two-thirds of our ward has left since the fighting came to Thandwe Township,” Ko Naung said. Young men remaining in Gyeik Taw also fear that junta troops may abduct or detain them, forcing them to serve as conscript soldiers or porters. The junta has blocked the entrance to Thandwe, but still allows people who have received permission letters from the township’s junta-appointed administrators to pass through their checkpoints. A mother of two living in Sin Gaung village, on the coast around 22 miles north of Thandwe, said she had come back to her village from Yangon before the recent clashes, not expecting that the battles between the AA and military would spread there. “Business was not good due to the blocked roads, so we closed our pub and fled after clashes broke out in Shwe Hlay village,” she said, referring to another village some seven miles to the northeast. She and her family barely had time to leave before the military banned boat travel between Sin Gaung and Thandwe. She is now staying at her sister’s home in Yangon with her two children. While she feels relieved to have gotten out of her village early enough to avoid the worst of the fighting, a communications blackout has left her unable to contact her husband, who stayed behind to look after their restaurant and home. “We lost contact with my husband after fighting broke out in our village. His mobile phone is powered off. I’ve heard that many people have died in our village amid the fighting, so I’m deeply worried for him,” she said.

Thandwe struggles as fighting nears, Myanmar army blocks roads and waterways

The town’s remaining residents, already facing the threats of shelling and forced conscription, say that travel bans, shortages, and blackouts have dealt an irreparable blow to their livelihoods

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