Burmese Ethnic Guerrillas Control the Border With Bangladesh
Maungdaw territory controlled by the Arakan Army, Dec. 2024. X/ @johnsnowbengal
December 11, 2024 Hour: 9:02 am
The Arakan Army rose up against the military junta in October 2023.
On Wednesday, the Arakan Army (AA), a guerrilla group fighting against the military junta in western Myanmar, seized control of the entire border between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
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The rebels managed to take control of Maungdaw after wresting the last military base from the Army on Sunday, following nearly two months of intense fighting in the border region, which had been the junta’s last stronghold in the area.
Images on Telegram show the rebels inside the military facilities alongside hundreds of confiscated weapons and munitions. A video depicts the surrender of men in Myanmar Army uniforms emerging from damaged buildings, holding white flags or, in the absence of flags, white pieces of polystyrene foam.
The town of Maungdaw, home to 110,000 people, lies on the banks of the Naf River, which separates Myanmar from Bangladesh. It is home to many members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
The AA, which had already controlled several strongholds in the western Rakhine State for years, rose up against the military junta in October 2023, joining forces with two other powerful ethnic guerrilla groups collectively known as the Brotherhood Alliance. Since then, this rebel alliance has successfully taken several border towns with China and other key cities vital for bilateral trade between the two countries.
Following mediation by Beijing in January, the Brotherhood Alliance and the junta reached a temporary ceasefire agreement. However, the rebels declared the ceasefire over on June 25, accusing the military of violating the pact.
The other two members of the alliance—the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army—recently expressed their willingness to negotiate with the military junta to end the conflict, with China serving as mediator.
These statements came after two invitations from the military regime to its adversaries to engage in political talks aimed at resolving the conflict, and a meeting in Yunnan—a province in southeastern China bordering Myanmar—between Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.
The military coup on February 1, 2021, ended a decade of democratic transition and triggered a spiral of violence that has worsened the country’s longstanding guerrilla warfare. Thousands of young people have since joined armed groups fighting against the military.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE