AA says its personnel still clashing with Muslim armed groups in Maungdaw Twsp

By Admin 11 Dec 2024

DMG Newsroom
11 December 2024, Maungdaw

The Arakkha Army (AA) reported on December 10 that there have been occasional clashes between its troops and Muslim armed organisations such as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA) in northern Arakan State.

The AA was able to take control of the entirety of the Maungdaw region in northern Arakan State after capturing the military regime's Border Guard Force Battalion No. 5 on December 8, but sporadic fighting has continued due to ambushes of AA troops and camps by the Muslim armed groups.

"ARSA, RSO, ARA and military-trained Muslim armed militiamen may become obstacles to the AA's next steps. However, since the AA has been successful both militarily and politically, I believe that it will be the best solution," said the writer Wai Hun Aung, who is also a philanthropist.

Muslim armed groups such as ARSA, RSO and ARA are active in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships and along the Mayu mountain range, where they are known to arrest, kill, abduct, shoot and extort local residents.

A group of about 10 ARSA members reportedly entered Hsin Swel Ya Village at around 10 p.m. on December 4, firing guns and beheading 16-year-old Ma Khin Win. ARSA members also abducted Ko Maung Maung, Ko Ye Ko Ko, and U Oo Hla Win that night, and set fire to five homes in the village.

A video clip of five men including Ko Maung Maung, Ko Ye Ko Ko, and U Oo Hla Win after having been detained by ARSA members went viral on social media over the weekend. ARSA members are seen in the video beating the men and pressuring them to tell the AA to stop fighting with the Muslim armed group and withdraw from Maungdaw District.

A man from Aungzeya Village, part of Arakan State's Maungdaw Township, was shot dead by ARSA on December 4.

A member of the AA was killed and six others were wounded during an RSO ambush in Buthidaung Township on November 3, when RSO fighters came in a motorboat and ambushed the AA troops, who were conducting security operations along the Naf River near Jaliadwip Island in Bangladesh's territorial waters on November 3.

AA personnel conducting clearance operations clashed with ARSA members near Gintaw camp in Maungdaw Township on October 22.

Local people in Maungdaw and Buthidaung who rely on the forests for their livelihoods are living in fear and anxiety amid the threat posed by the Muslim armed groups.

"We can't go from one place to another freely. We are afraid of Muslim armed groups. ARSA poses a great threat to us," said U Shwe Ni Maung, a local man in Maungdaw.