Mizzima
The Arakan Army (AA) issued a statement saying that it will launch a significant offensive against the remaining junta bases in Maungdaw Town in Rakhine State on the Bangladesh border.
The 16 June AA statement said that the AA has already seized most of the junta camps in Maungdaw Township and has surrounded and blocked the remaining junta-held camps in the township.
The statement warns that the situation in Maungdaw Township could worsen as of 16 June 2024, when the AA will launch an all-out assault on the remaining junta bases.
The statement tells people to leave if they can saying: “Due to concerns for the safety of the residents of Maungdaw, the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army urgently advises all residents to evacuate Maungdaw immediately, starting from 9 PM on June 16, 2024.”
Unfortunately, it will be very hard for residents to leave, they have nowhere to go and it is the wet season.
For those who cannot leave the statement warns them not to stay close to junta forces or junta positions.
It says: “As further assaults on these remaining camps are imminent, residents of Maungdaw Township are urged to avoid staying in areas such as roads and houses from which the SAC [State Administration Council] forces have fortified positions, the locations which could be targeted by the snipers from top of the buildings, and any place where the SAC forces are present.”
The AA took over Buthidaung Town in Rakhine State, a key junta stronghold, on 18 May. The AA has also taken control of the towns of Rathedaung, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, Myebon, Pauktaw, and Ramree in Rakhine State, and Paletwa in Chin State.
However, fighting is ongoing between the AA and the junta in other areas of Rakhine State that the AA does not yet hold.
The junta currently also holds Sittwe and reports indicate that junta soldiers have been forcing villagers from villages around Sittwe Town to leave their houses and move to Sittwe. If the villagers refuse the junta troops say they will burn down their villages and massacre the population as they did in Byai Phyu Village in Rakhine State on 2 June, when they killed over 50 villagers and burned down the village.
The junta has not provided anywhere for the displaced people to stay in Sittwe and the suspicion is that the junta is getting the villagers into the town so that it can use them as human shields during expected attacks on Sittwe by the AA.
Also in Sittwe Town, on 16 June, junta troops carried out raids in Mingan Ward and arrested nearly 200 residents under the pretence that they were checking residents’ overnight guest lists. Amongst the arrested were youths under 13 years of age and adults aged over 50 years
