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By AFP
Fighters from a Myanmar ethnic armed organisation have seized management of a port city after greater than two months of intense clashes with junta troops, they stated.
The Arakan Military stated late Wednesday it “fully managed” Pauktaw, a city of 20,000 folks near a vital deepwater port in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State.
AA fighters briefly seized Pauktaw in November, shattering a fragile ceasefire that had largely held for the reason that navy’s coup in 2021.
The junta has used artillery and naval ships to bombard the city virtually each day since, and strafed it with gunfire from helicopters, residents have advised Agence France-Presse.
New Google Earth photos of Pauktaw confirmed a block of the downtown space lowered virtually totally to rubble and injury to a number of buildings close to its harbour.
A number of buildings within the police station compound had been destroyed too.
AFP was unable to substantiate the AA declare, and communications with Pauktaw remained patchy.
A supply near the AA advised AFP earlier this week that its fighters had been conducting “clearance operations” within the city.
On Tuesday the AA stated “intense” clashes had been ongoing within the city however has not commented since.
Round 18,000 folks had been displaced from the world as a consequence of combating, the United Nations stated in November.
Pauktaw is 25 kilometres east of the state capital Sittwe, residence to a deepwater port partly financed by India because it seeks to deepen financial linkages with Myanmar.
Earlier this week Myanmar’s chambers of commerce hosted talks with an Indian enterprise delegation on “upgrading” operations at Sittwe port, junta-backed media reported Thursday.
Journey between Sittwe and Pauktaw was severely restricted by new navy gates and checkpoints, a Pauktaw resident at present in Sittwe advised AFP on Thursday, requesting anonymity for safety causes.
In its Wednesday assertion the AA stated “intense” clashes had been ongoing in Mrauk-U, Minbya, Kyauktaw and Rathedaung townships in Rakhine, with out giving particulars.
The AA, based in 2009, has fought an on-off struggle for years in search of extra autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine inhabitants.
It’s one in every of dozens of ethnic minority armed teams which have battled Myanmar’s navy since independence from Britain in 1948.
Some teams need better autonomy, whereas others merely need the appropriate to run the profitable commerce in jade, medication and timber of their territories.
The clashes in Rakhine come because the navy and ethnic minority armed teams in northern Shan State accuse one another of breaching a China-brokered ceasefire.
Combating had raged alongside the border with China since late October, with the navy dropping management of a number of cities and important commerce crossings to its northern neighbour.
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