Fighting between the military and Arakkha Army (AA) is escalating as the AA has ramped up offensive attacks on the military in an effort to completely seize the Buthidaung-based No. 15 Military Operations Command,

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Myanmar has expressed concerns about violence and racial tensions in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township.

“The fighting was fierce, and more junta soldiers could have been killed though I don’t know the details,” said the source.

While basic foodstuffs and consumer goods are still coming into Arakan State through some channels, the state has not been able to sell its products for months.

The three were injured after mortar shells fired by a junta navy vessel in the Kaladan River east of Sittwe Township fell and exploded in the respective villages on April 25.

Myanmar’s military regime has been pressuring more than 100 ethnic Chin people from about 10 villages in Arakan State’s Ann Township into joining the Myanmar military.

Among those who were freed were ordinary civilians as well as municipal employees and education workers, who were released after paying some money to the junta soldiers.

The military has been clashing with the Arakkha Army (AA) near the Thu Htay Chaung hydropower project in Thandwe Township, Arakan State, since Friday morning, according to local residents.

Myanmar’s military regime abducted a boatman from his home in Ngalapwe Ward, Kyaukphyu Township, in Arakan State on Thursday, according to local people.

The regime carried out airstrikes and artillery attacks on civilian areas in Kyaukphyu Township yesterday without any fighting in the area, locals said.

Some 200 residents attempted to flee Sittwe by boat on April 20 for fear that fighting may soon break out between the regime and Arakkha Army (AA) in the town. They were shot at and stopped by junta troops deployed on Kantkaw Island.

The ban was made as of the second week of April in response to the food requirements of refugees who have fled fighting in Myanmar, according to Paletwa residents.

It has been over one month since the Arakkha Army (AA) clashed with the military in Arakan State’s Ann Township, where the military’s Western Command headquarters is located, on March 24.

The number of people displaced by armed conflicts in Myanmar since the 2021 military coup has reached 3,019,550, according to figures compiled by BNI-Myanmar Peace Monitor.

The Arakkha Army (AA) attacked the military’s Buthidaung-based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 565 with drones on the afternoon of April 24 and fighting continued to intensify on Thursday.

The UN human rights chief’s statement did not mention Muslim armed groups and emphasised only Muslims among those suffering from the fighting, while ignoring other victims, the AA said in response.

Some 30 junta soldiers from the Aung Mingalar border guard force police outpost in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, surrendered to the Arakkha Army (AA) on April 23.

Junta soldiers came again on Tuesday and told the residents that they could stay if they signed a document that they would not oppose the military regime.

Five male villagers aged 40 to 50 from Abuja Village in northern Maungdaw were abducted by an unidentified armed group on April 17. Their bodies were found near the village on April 22, according to residents.