News Desk :
The Arakan Army (AA), a rebel group in Myanmar, has reportedly captured the town of Maungdaw in Rakhine state amid the ongoing conflict with government forces.
Consequently, the entirety of the 270km Bangladesh-Myanmar border is now under the control of the AA, according to a BBC report, reports bdnews24.com
The insurgents seized the last remaining junta-controlled border outpost, the BGP-5 battalion near Maungdaw, on Dec 8 following months of intense fighting.
Videos released by the AA show their forces besieging the outpost with heavy gunfire, while Myanmar’s air force launched counterattacks.
Since the military coup in 2021, which ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected government, the country has been embroiled in a devastating civil war. The AA has been actively fighting the junta for over eight months.
Security analysts note that some Rohingya-aligned groups in Rakhine, including the Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA) and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), initially sided with the junta. However, the latest defeat marks another significant setback for coup leader Gen Min Aung Hlaing, as the junta continues to lose strategic towns to the AA.
Earlier this year, military units, including the BGP-5 battalion, were withdrawn from Maungdaw in September. The compound, spanning approximately 20 hectares, was built on land formerly occupied by the Rohingya village of Maung Thugyi, which was burned and cleared during the military’s violent crackdown on the Rohingya in 2017.
The scale of the fighting in Maungdaw since June suggests that the junta has suffered heavy losses, with reports of hundreds of soldiers killed. On Dec 7, the AA announced the capture of over 30 junta military camps in Rakhine’s Ann Township, repelling air and ground attacks.
Reports indicate that Myanmar soldiers began surrendering in Maungdaw. Videos from the AA show soldiers emerging with white flags, many injured or limping. Inside the outpost, footage reveals the devastation, with piles of bodies and AA fighters celebrating their victory.
The AA claimed that over 450 junta soldiers were killed during the Maungdaw siege. They released images of captured Brig Gen Thurein Tun and other officers kneeling beneath a raised AA banner.
Pro-military commentators in Myanmar have expressed despair on social media following the fall of BGP-5, underscoring the AA’s growing strength and effectiveness.
Although the AA was established relatively late, in 2009, it has emerged as one of Myanmar’s most formidable rebel forces. However, questions remain about how the group will treat the approximately 600,000 Rohingya still living in Rakhine, especially after the military expelled over 700,000 Rohingya in 2017.
A Rohingya man who recently fled Maungdaw to Bangladesh described widespread destruction. “Eighty per cent of the housing in Maungdaw and the surrounding villages has been destroyed,” one Rohingya man who left Maungdaw recently for Bangladesh told the BBC.
“The town is deserted. Almost all the shops and houses have been looted.”
Relations between the AA and the Rohingya population have long been strained, and tensions have escalated further. Many Rohingya groups in Bangladesh refugee camps initially aligned with the junta and are now in a precarious position.
The AA has also targeted Rohingya militias tied to the junta, including the ARA, ARSA, and the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation, forcing them to abandon their bases.
Earlier this year, leaders of some Rohingya groups sought refuge in Bangladesh with weapons but were detained by local authorities.
The Myanmar government continues to deny the Rohingya citizenship, and many in Rakhine believe they should not remain in the region. A Rohingya man said, “Our situation today is even more difficult than it was under the rule of the military junta.”
