Junta, AA troops clash in Rathedaung Twsp

By DMG 26 Oct 2022

DMG Newsroom
26 October 2022, Rathedaung

Myanmar junta troops and the Arakan Army (AA) clashed near Chein Ka Li Village in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township on Wednesday evening, prompting local villagers to flee their homes.

The fighting flared near a border guard police outpost in the north of the village. Some 700 villagers fled as junta troops fired artillery from the Mayu mountain range, village administrator U Tun Tint Soe told DMG.

“Villagers have fled into the hills, as well as to Koe Tan Kauk and Inn Din villages as [the Myanmar military] fired artillery from the Mayu mountain range. We don’t know if anyone was hurt by the shelling,” he said.

A community elder from Done Pike Village said he heard loud explosions and gunfire on Wednesday. “We didn’t flee. Some Chein Ka Li villagers have arrived at our village. The fighting only lasted for around 20 minutes,” he said.

AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha said: “We had an engagement some 300 metres north of Chein Ka Li Village. I still don’t know casualties. It was not an attack to seize the police outpost. But our troops encountered junta personnel who came out of the Chein Kha Li border guard police outpost.”

DMG was unable to obtain comment from junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun and Arakan State Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Kyaw Thura.

The Myanmar military and AA troops also clashed along the Mayu mountain range between Done Pike and Chein Ka Li villages on August 13.

The number of IDPs in Arakan State and neighbouring Paletwa Township, Chin State, has increased by more than 17,000 due to the resurgence of fighting between the military and AA from August to mid-October.

In a statement on October 19, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said that with those newly displaced, the total number of IDPs from past and present military-AA fighting stands at more than 91,000.