Agency :
Over 700 civilians have been killed and more than 1,500 wounded by Myanmar’s junta and its allies in Rakhine State within a year, according to the United League of Arakan (ULA).
The Arakan Army, the armed wing of the ULA, launched an offensive against the junta in northern Rakhine and Paletwa Township in southern Chin State on November 13 last year. It has since seized 11 of Rakhine’s 17 townships and Paletwa Township.
It is currently fighting to seize Ann, Taungup, Maungdaw and Gwa towns. Ann Township contains the military command centers for Rakhine State, reports Irrawaddy.
Junta forces have responded with air and artillery strikes, killings and arbitrary arrests across the state.
A report released on Monday by the ULA’s Humanitarian and Development Coordination Office said 735 people, including 517 males and 218 females, had been killed by the junta in the last year, while 1,569 were injured.
It said 132 of those killed were under 18.
“Although the junta has lost ground control in many townships across Arakan, the population in liberated areas remains dangerously exposed to frequent indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery shots, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries,” it said.
The report said 785 civilians were killed and injured by air and drone strikes, followed by 679 killed and wounded by artillery.
In May, nine Nat Taung Maw villagers in Thandwe Township, southern Rakhine State, were killed by junta shelling, although there was no fighting in the area.
Twelve civilians were killed and almost 80 injured when shelling from a naval base in Sittwe struck a bazaar in February.
Sittwe Township, under junta control, recorded the highest number of civilian deaths with 108, followed by Buthidaung Township with 104 and Maungdaw Township with 85, the report said.
Junta troops and allied groups detained 749 civilians, the ULA reported.
The report said civilians, particularly in junta-controlled areas, like Sittwe and Kyaukphyu, are under constant threat of arrest and extrajudicial executions. The junta authorities have also blocked residents from relocating to safer areas.
