Myanmar ethnic minority fighters claim to have captured town near Bangladesh border

YANGON – An armed ethnic minority group in Myanmar said it has captured a town and several junta outposts near the border with Bangladesh and India, in the latest setback for the embattled military.

Clashes have rocked Myanmar’s western Rakhine and Chin states since

the Arakan Army (AA) attacked security forces in November 2023,

ending a ceasefire that had largely held since

the junta’s 2021 coup.

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

The group said late on Jan 14 that AA fighters had seized the town of Paletwa in Chin state, around 20km from the Bangladesh border.

Paletwa sits on the Kaladan River, which a New Delhi-backed infrastructure initiative hopes to use to link India’s landlocked north-east to the Bay of Bengal.

The AA posted pictures that it said showed its fighters outside the town’s police station and general administration office.

It said it was now in control of the whole of Paletwa township, which had a population of over 64,000 people, according to a 2014 census.

The AA also said it had captured six military bases along the border with India’s Mizoram state.

AFP could not confirm the reports.

In October, an alliance of the AA and two other ethnic minority groups

launched a joint offensive across Myanmar’s northern Shan state

, capturing towns and seizing vital trade hubs on the China border.

The alliance announced on Jan 12

a China-mediated ceasefire in Shan

state after months of conflict that posed the biggest threat to the junta since it seized power. AFP