Junta allows traffic to resume along Sittwe-Ponnagyun road

By DMG 03 Dec 2022

DMG Newsroom
3 December 2022, Ponnagyun

Myanmar’s military regime reopened the Sittwe-Ponnagyun road at around 4 p.m. on Saturday, according to local residents, a week after the junta and Arakan Army (AA) reached an informal ceasefire bringing an end, for now, to months of renewed hostilities in the region.

“The checkpoint outside Ponnagyun police station has just removed the blockade,” a vendor near the Sittwe-Ponnagyun road told DMG. “Only cargo trucks are left on the road. Passenger vehicles had already turned back, and some passengers had travelled by water to their destinations. All the trapped cargo vehicles are leaving now.”

The Myanmar military blockaded the Sittwe-Ponnagyun road after the Arakan Army (AA) ambushed a junta food convoy between Padetha and Sin Inn Gyi villages in Ponnagyun Township on November 10.

One cargo truck driver said people like himself had had a lot of difficulties being trapped for nearly a month in Ponnagyun.

“Luckily, I was transporting cosmetics. So, they did not go bad. But it cost a lot as I had to stay here for a month. The cost is much higher than the payment I will receive. I am afraid I will have to talk with the truck owner when I am back in Sittwe,” he said.

Supplies ranging from foodstuffs to pharmaceuticals ran short in the area due to the regime’s road blockade.

The military and the AA reached their unofficial truce on November 26. Following the ceasefire, the regime has reopened some roads and waterways that it had blockaded amid its conflict with the AA, though other major land and water routes remain inaccessible.