Junta troops surrender, abandon bases as fresh fighting erupts in Arakan

By Admin 13 Nov 2023

DMG Newsroom
13 November 2023, Sittwe

Junta troops surrendered or fled their bases in Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun and Kyaukphyu townships on the first day of renewed fighting in Arakan State, according to the Arakan Army (AA) and local residents.

Twenty-six police officers at the Apaukwa police station in Kyauktaw Township, including the police chief, reportedly surrendered to the AA at around 11 a.m. on Monday.

A resident who lives near the police station said: “[The Arakan Army] has seized the police station. The AA brought all the police from the police station in cars. There was no fighting. The whole police station surrendered.”

Policemen including a sub-inspector from Kunchaung police station in Kyaukphyu Township, meanwhile, fled their base at around 10 a.m. on Monday, a local source told DMG.

“The police station was deserted this morning. We don’t know where they went. There were [previously] six policemen at the police station including a sub-inspector,” said the source.

Junta soldiers stationed at the Kuntaung railway station in Ponnagyun Township left for the relative safety of battalions based in the Arakan State capital Sittwe, according to a resident.

“They left toward Sittwe in two vehicles. There might have been around 50 of them,” he said.

DMG was unable to obtain comment from junta-appointed Arakan State security and border affairs minister Colonel Kyaw Thura.

The AA seized junta border guard outposts in Rathedaung Township’s Cheinkalein and Donpaik villages, along the Agnumaw-Maungdaw road, on Monday morning. The Arakanese ethnic armed group also ambushed a junta convoy in Minbya Township.

“There were clashes in Rathedaung and Minbya townships this morning,” confirmed AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha. “We have seized some positions. The entire Apaukwa [police station] surrendered.”

Myanmar’s military regime on Monday closed security checkpoints and blockaded roads and waterways across Arakan State as clashes between the junta and the Arakan Army (AA) resumed, bringing vehicle and boat traffic to a standstill at several locations.

The fighting in Rathedaung and Minbya townships were anticipated by many observers amid speculation that a “western front” to the anti-junta armed resistance movement might open in Arakan State after the Three Brotherhood Alliance, of which the AA is a member, launched an offensive late last month with the aim of toppling Myanmar’s military regime.