Hundreds of locals flee as military clashes with Arakan Army in Rathedaung Twsp

By DMG 13 Aug 2022

DMG Newsroom
13 August 2022, Rathedaung 

Some 700 residents have reportedly fled their homes for safer locations as the Myanmar military and Arakan Army have been clashing in the Mayu Hills between Rathedaung Township’s Donpaik and Cheinkhali villages, with the hostilities beginning on Saturday morning. 

Fighting first broke out at a location about one mile from Cheinkhali village at about 8 a.m. on August 13, prompting hundreds of locals to flee to safer locations, said a village elder who declined to be named. 

“All the villagers are fleeing because of the fighting between the AA and the regime forces. I still don’t know where my daughter is after running away with her child,” the unnamed resident added. 

“Heavy weapons and small arms fire were heard from the Mayu mountain range and locals are worried for their safety,” said a resident of Donpaik village who refused to be named. 

“The fighting has been erupting at a location between Cheinkhali and Donpaik villages. Heavy weapons fire was heard in my village. Villagers remain vigilant due to the clashes,” he added. 

DMG attempts to contact the spokesmen for the Arakan Army and Myanmar’s military regime for comment were unsuccessful on Saturday. 

At an online press conference on August 11, the Arakan Army spokesman warned of the potential for escalating hostilities with the military if the junta continued to arrest civilians in Arakan State. He also advised local people in Arakan State to exercise caution in the face of the AA’s limited ability to prevent the military regime from carrying out arbitrary arrests. 

Military tensions have been running high between the two sides for months, with intermittent clashes over recent weeks threatening a precarious informal ceasefire that has been in place since November 2020. 

Myanmar’s military has withdrawn from seven outposts in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township amid its increasingly fraught relations with the Arakan Army, according to the ethnic armed group.