A insurgent military in Myanmar stated it had captured a significant army headquarters within the nation’s west, marking the autumn of the junta’s second regional command because it faces mounting setbacks towards a nationwide armed resistance motion.
The Arakan Military (AA) stated the western army command in Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh, fell on Friday after two weeks of intense combating, in accordance with an announcement posted on Telegram late on Friday.
The regional command at Ann can be the second regional army command to fall to ethnic rebels in 5 months, and an enormous blow to the army.
A spokesperson for Myanmar’s army authorities couldn’t be reached for touch upon Saturday.
Myanmar’s army has 14 regional instructions throughout the nation with a lot of them at the moment combating established ethnic insurgent teams or newer “individuals’s defence forces” which have sprung as much as battle the army’s 2021 coup.
Preventing has rocked Rakhine state for the reason that AA attacked safety forces in November final yr, ending a ceasefire that had largely held for the reason that putsch.
AA fighters have seized swathes of territory within the state that’s residence to China and India-backed port initiatives and all however reduce off the state capital, Sittwe.
The AA posted pictures of a person whom it stated was the Ann deputy regional commander, within the custody of its fighters.
The ethnic insurgent group is a part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance – a set of anti-junta teams – that launched an offensive in October 2023, notching a number of important victories alongside Myanmar’s border with China.
In August, the alliance wrested management of the north-eastern city of Lashio, marking the primary seizure of a regional army command in Myanmar’s historical past.
Myanmar’s borderlands are residence to myriad ethnic armed teams who’ve battled the army since independence for autonomy and management of profitable sources.
Final month the UN warned Rakhine state was heading in direction of famine, as ongoing clashes squeeze commerce and agricultural manufacturing.
“Rakhine’s financial system has stopped functioning,” the report from the UN Improvement Programme stated, projecting “famine circumstances by mid-2025” if present ranges of meals insecurity had been left unaddressed.
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