The rebel Arakan Army is closing in on Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, firing artillery on military junta outposts outside the city and preparing for an assault, residents told Radio Free Asia.
Residents have been fleeing from Sittwe’s outskirts since January, but now aren’t able to escape because junta forces have blocked all exit routes, said Wai Hin Aung, an aid worker in the city. “The blockade has led to this fighting, with the use of heavy weapons,” he said.
The rebel ethnic Arakan Army, or AA, has made significant gains over the past year in its bid to root the military out of Rakhine state in its bid for self-determination.
Of the 17 townships in Rakhine state, 14 are under the control of the AA, leaving only three still in the hands of the military junta – Kyaukphyu, Munaung and Sittwe, where the junta’s regional headquarters is based.
Sittwe is crucial for the junta – which seized control of Myanmar in a 2021 coup d’état – not only as a source of much-needed revenue and foreign currency, but also for its role in Myanmar’s oil and gas trade via the Indian Ocean.
If Sittwe falls, it would be the latest and one of the most significant defeats for the junta, which has been pushed back across the country by various ethnic armies and armed citizens who have formed militias called Peoples Defense Forces, or PDF.
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