ASEANEWS HEADLINE-CIVIL WAR | MYANMAR: Myanmar junta set to lose Rakhine state to ethnic armed group
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ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – Myanmar’s junta is on the verge of being expelled from a western most state bordering Bangladesh, according to a new report, marking the one of the biggest military losses since a 2021 coup led to renewed civilian conflict across the country.
The Arakan Army has made rapid advances across Rakhine state since November 2023 and is set to create the single largest area controlled by an ethnic armed group since the coup, the International Crisis Group said in a report yesterday.
Memento Maxima Digital MarketingThe armed group is responsible for some of the military junta’s most decisive battleground losses over the past year. The victories are rallying other ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy fighters to dislodge the military regime led by coup leader-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing.
“The Arakan Army is in the process of carving out a proto-state of over a million people on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border,” International Crisis Group said in the report. “Although the Myanmar military has countered with indiscriminate attacks and a blockade that is causing huge economic distress, the armed group” has pushed on.
Other reports show the military has lost control over most of the nation’s townships, and in July, it extended emergency rule again as the security situation deteriorates.
Compounding those problems is a worsening economic picture, with 76 per cent of the population living below or perilously close to a subsistence existence, the United Nations Development Programme said in April.
The Arakan Army has achieved key victories along Rakhine’s coast, and it is now poised to attack Sittwe, the state capital. A key target is the island township of Kyaukphyu, which hosts critical infrastructure projects.
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