This photo taken on May 21, 2024 shows people rebuilding temporary homes near a destroyed building following fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA) ethnic minority armed group in a village in Minbya Township in Rakhine State.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Myanmar’s Rakhine State is facing a terrifying situation similar to the run-up to “genocidal violence” eight years ago against the persecuted Rohingya minority, a UN expert warned on July 4.

Speaking at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Thomas Andrews, the special rapporteur on the situation in Myanmar, voiced deep alarm at recent events in the western region.

“The situation in Rakhine State, where the junta is rapidly losing territory to the Arakan Army, is terrifying,” Mr. Andrews said.

“For Rohingya people — oppressed, scapegoated, exploited, and stuck between warring parties — the situation carries echoes of the lead-up to genocidal violence in 2016 and 2017.”

Clashes have rocked Rakhine State since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked security forces in November.

That ended a ceasefire that had largely held since a military coup in 2021 after a short-lived experiment with democracy.

AA fighters have seized swathes of territory, piling pressure on the junta as it battles opponents elsewhere.

Mr. Andrews, an independent expert appointed by the rights council who does not speak on behalf of the UN, said the military had been conscripting “thousands of Rohingya youth and mobilising them against the Arakan Army”.

“Even though many Rohingya young men have been taken to the front lines of the conflict against their will, the potential for retaliation by members of the Arakan community, and a downward spiral of violence, is enormous,” he cautioned.

Mr. Andrews said there were reports linking AA soldiers to rights violations against Rohingya civilians, at a time when the humanitarian situation for both Rohingya and Rakhine people was “extremely dire”.

He said “tens, if not hundreds of thousands, have been displaced in Rakhine State”.

In May, the AA said it had seized the town of Buthidaung in northern Rakhine, home to many Rohingya Muslims.

Several Rohingya diaspora groups later accused the AA of forcing Rohingya to flee and then looting and burning their homes — claims the AA called “propaganda”.

The AA, which says it is fighting for autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine population, has vowed to capture the whole of the state.

A Myanmar military air strike on a medical clinic wounded around 20 people in western Rakhine state, according to an ethnic armed group, a resident and local media on May 15.

Clashes have rocked Rakhine since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked security forces in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since a military junta’s coup in 2021.

AA fighters have seized territory, including along the border with India and Bangladesh, piling further pressure on the junta as it battles opponents elsewhere across the Southeast Asian country.

“I heard a very loud sound of jet fighters flying last night then I heard explosions around midnight,” a resident of Wea Gyi Htaunt village, near the town of Kyauktaw, told AFP.

“As soon as I knew it was an air strike, our family fled our house and hid in the woods,” she said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

“I heard that tens of people who were outpatients, medical staff, and local villagers, got injured.”

At least 20 people, including outpatients, carers and staff were wounded in the attack that came shortly after midnight, the AA said on its Telegram account.

Five of those were seriously wounded and the clinic had been almost entirely destroyed, it said.

Local media also reported the strike and said 15 people had been wounded.

The resident said the AA had previously taken over the running of the clinic, located near Wea Gyi Htaunt.

The military had shelled the area repeatedly in recent days, she said.

Communication with Rakhine is extremely difficult, with most mobile networks down.

AFP has asked the junta for comment.

The AA is one of several armed ethnic minority groups in Myanmar’s border regions, many of whom have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

The AA claims to be fighting for more autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine population.

Fighting had spread to 15 of Rakhine state’s 17 townships since the November outbreak, the UN’s human rights chief said last month.

Hundreds of people have been killed or wounded and more than 300,000 displaced, it said.

Clashes between the AA and the military in 2019 roiled the region and displaced around 200,000 people.

The military launched a crackdown on the Rohingya minority there in 2017 which is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.

This handout photo taken and released October 28, 2023 by the Kokang Information Network shows members of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army walking past a Myanmar military base after seizing it during clashes near Laukkaing township in Myanmar’s northern Shan state.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Heavy fighting between rebels and the Myanmar military stretched into a second day near the country’s northern border with China, armed groups said on Saturday.

Myanmar’s junta seized power in a February 2021 coup that sparked renewed fighting with powerful ethnic rebel groups in northern Shan state.

An alliance of ethnic rebel groups launched coordinated attacks on military positions across the country’s north on Friday, posing a fresh challenge to the junta as it struggles to quell resistance to its rule.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army said Saturday it had seized three military outposts — two located close to Mongko near the border with China.

The rebels also ambushed a group of soldiers coming from Hopang and seized military equipment.

The group did not provide details of fatalities.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army said Saturday it had so far seized three military outposts at Namhkam and 18 soldiers were killed.

The group also said it had taken two military outposts at Lashio and netted a haul of military equipment.

The military deployed a fighter jet and helicopter gunship to Lashio, the TNLA statement said.

Overnight, there was heavy shelling for seven hours near Lashio, a local rescue worker said, adding the fighting had died down on Saturday.

Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told local media on Friday that rebels had attacked military positions in the Chinshwehaw, Laukkai, and Kunlong areas and some outposts were lost.

“We tried to maintain peace and stability in north Shan, but insurgents tried to destroy stability,” he said.

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday it was “closely following” the fighting and called on all sides to prevent the situation from escalating.

Shan state has been earmarked for a proposed billion-dollar rail link under China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure project.

Homes destroyed after air and artillery strikes in Mung Lai Hkyet displacement camp, in Laiza, Myanmar, on October 10, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Myanmar’s ruling junta ordered air strikes and troop reinforcements as it tried to recover lost outposts near the Chinese border from rebels, the military said.

The toppling of Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in a 2021 coup sparked a huge backlash and the military junta is now battling opponents across swaths of the country.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) attacked Myanmar military positions around Muse district in northern Shan state on Thursday and near the remote town of Laiza in Kachin state on Friday.

The military was forced to retreat on Friday afternoon and ordered air strikes, as well as artillery and troop reinforcements, the junta said in a statement shortly before midnight Friday.

The KIA said Saturday that the military had counter-attacked with air strikes and ground artillery.

It added that the junta had suffered some fatalities in the latest clashes this week but did not provide a death toll.

“We seized a lot of guns and other equipment from the military,” KIA Colonel Naw Bu told AFP.

The KIA controls large parts of the Christian-majority Kachin state and has clashed with Myanmar’s military for decades.

The region has seen intense fighting since the coup, and the junta accuses the KIA of training People’s Defence Forces that have sprung up in resistance.

Muse lies on the path of a proposed $8.9 billion high-speed rail link from China’s landlocked Yunnan province to Myanmar’s west coast, a key part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The junta has been accused of carrying out multiple bloody attacks on civilians as it struggles to crush resistance to its 2021 coup.

Nearly 30 people were killed and dozens were wounded this month after a military strike on a camp for displaced people near Laiza.

Amnesty International said the deadly attack on the camp was likely the result of the Myanmar military using a large unguided aerial-delivered bomb, while the junta blamed the explosion on a store of rebel bombs.

A video grab shows Kim Aris displaying an old photo of his mother and Myanmar’s ousted, detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
| Photo Credit: AP

The younger son of ousted Myanmar leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi has said he’s increasingly worried about his imprisoned 78-year-old mother’s health and about Myanmar’s violent political crisis, which he calls “desperate.”

“I’d just really like to have some form of contact with her so that I know that she’ OK, because at the moment she has no access to her legal counsel,” Kim Aris said on September 13 in a video interview with The Associated Press from his home in London.

Explained | The legal battles of Aung San Suu Kyi since the 2021 coup in Myanmar

“She has no access to her personal doctors. She’s not allowed any visitors, as far as I’m aware. She’s not even allowed to mingle with the other prisoners, which means she’s basically under a form of solitary confinement.” Ms. Suu Kyi was arrested in 2021 when the Army seized power from her democratically elected government. She has since been prosecuted and convicted on more than a dozen charges for offenses her supporters say were concocted to keep her out of politics. She is serving a prison term of 27 years.

The military takeover triggered massive public resistance that was brutally suppressed, triggering a bloody civil war that has killed thousands of people.

Mr. Aris, 46, said he has tried to keep out of the spotlight for decades, seeking to avoid any political activism and “just trying to keep my head down and get on with my family life.” “I’ve always tried to avoid speaking to the media and (have been) avoiding social media all my life. But the situation in Burma at the moment is absolutely desperate,” he said, referring to Myanmar by its former name. “The fact that I’ve not been allowed to communicate with my mother at all for over two and a half years now” is another reason he is speaking out,” he said.

“So now I’m doing all I can to try and help the situation and bring awareness of this situation to the wider world,” he said. He is getting active on social media and said he plans a campaign to “bring awareness and funding for humanitarian purposes” Mr. Aris said he has heard that his mother has been extremely ill and has been suffering from gum problems and was unable to eat. “She was suffering from bouts of dizziness and vomiting and couldn’t walk at one stage.” Mr. Aris said his information comes from independent Myanmar media and social media.

“Britain’s Foreign Office and the International Red Cross have tried and failed to learn more on his behalf,” he said. He has tried reaching out to Myanmar’s military government, including its embassy in London, “but I don’t get any response from them. They wouldn’t even answer the door to me.” It’s not the first time Suu Kyi has faced confinement. She spent nearly 15 years under house arrest under a previous military government starting in 1989, a year after co-founding her National League for Democracy party. But almost all of that time was at her family home in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, and she was not completely isolated.

“At that time, it was in her own home, and she was allowed visitors. At times, I was allowed to spend time with her under house arrest. And we were allowed to send her care packages and letters and have communication with her. Now, for the last two and a half years, we have had none of those basic human rights.”

“I realise that there are so many natural disasters and humanitarian crisis all over the world now and it’s hard for everybody to be exposed to that every day. We all need to try and do our bit to try and help everywhere that we can. And Burma is one country where we can change things very easily,” Mr. Aris said.

“If only 2% of what has been given to the Ukrainian forces had been given to the resistance forces in Burma, the situation would be very different now,” he said. “So I hope that people around the world can rally and try and help the people in Burma so that we can end this needless bloodshed.”