AA continues search for four missing villagers in Maungdaw Twsp

By Admin 11 Oct 2024

DMG Newsroom
11 October 2024, Maungdaw

Four people - three of them teenage boys - from Kainggyi Village in Arakan State's Maungdaw Township have been missing for more than 10 days, with no indication as to their whereabouts or wellbeing, according to family members and relatives.

U Hsai Waing, 45, his sons Maung Lin Gyi, 15, and Maung Arr Mon, 12, and his nephew Maung Di Kaw, 14, left home on September 30 to go fishing at a stream near the village and family members have not been able to contact them since.

"To this day, we have not been in contact with the four of them, nor have I been able to find them," said a local man from Kainggyi Village.

Arakkha Army (AA) members and villagers have been searching for the missing, and Maung Lin Gyi's hat was found on October 4 in an area where the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) had camped.

The AA issued a statement on October 7 indicating that the four were arrested by ARSA, and that members of the AA's Department of Law Enforcement and Public Security (DLEPS), AA fighters and local residents were searching for them.

Locals and internally displaced people (IDPs) dare not go fishing due to safety concerns since foursome went missing.

"Previously, IDPs and villagers made a living by fishing and collecting vegetables. Now locals dare not go outside their homes. IDPs face livelihood hardships," said another resident of Kainggyi Village.

There are more than 500 people across about 90 households in Kainggyi Village, which currently houses about 200 IDPs from Shweyinaye and Waithali villages whose homes were damaged or destroyed during fighting there.

Muslim armed groups such as ARSA, the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and the Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA) have been accused of killing local civilians in northern Arakan State.

Two men - U San Shwe Maung, 67, and U Maung Mya Aung, 65, from No. 2 Ward in Buthidaung Town - were reported missing after they went to Gone Nar Village to cut bamboo on the morning of October 7. Their bodies were found on October 10, having been beheaded and buried by ARSA, according to the AA.

A member of the AA's nascent DLEPS was killed and two others were wounded when they were ambushed by ARSA while searching for the two missing men on October 8, the AA said.

"ARSA is active along the Bangladesh border in northern Maungdaw Township. If the locals go from village to village, they should be aware of armed Muslim men," said a Maungdaw resident.

A local woman was killed and four civilians were injured in an attack blamed on ARSA near Maungdaw Township's Meetaik Village on October 6. Five people were killed and two others were severely injured after a civilian vehicle was ambushed by ARSA in northern Maungdaw Township on July 31.