Updated Jan. 23, 2025, 3:49 p.m. ET
Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese.
Some two-thirds of residents of a beach resort town in Myanmar’s heartland have fled their homes amid fighting between junta troops and ethnic Rakhine rebels, sources in the region told RFA Burmese on Wednesday.
Until now, the Arakan Army, or AA, has been fighting junta troops in Rakhine state, in Myanmar’s west, where it controls nearly all townships, and other states and regions on the country’s periphery.
Now the emboldened rebel army is moving beyond its traditional territory.
The fighting near Chaung Thar and Shwe Thaung Yan, popular beach destinations in Ayeyarwady region’s Pathein township, is the latest sign that the junta is losing ground as the civil war grinds toward its fourth full year following its February 2021 coup d’etat.
Normally home to around 6,000 households, only about 2,000 remain in Chaung Thar, according to a resident, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“Residents of Chaung Thar are fleeing in fear of the fighting,” he said. “Wealthy individuals have closed their grocery stores and hotels before leaving. Approximately two-thirds of the town’s residents have already fled.”
Those who fled the town are taking shelter in the cities of Pathein and Yangon, while residents of Shwe Thaung Yan town — where fighting raged from Jan. 18-21 — as well as nearby Baw Mi and Ma Gyi Zin villages, have fled to Thabaung town, residents said.
Many of those who have not left Chaung Thar stayed because they lack the money needed to relocate, they said.
Tourism impacted
While gunfire was heard near the town in recent days, the situation has been calm since Tuesday, residents reported.
A hotel staff member told RFA that of the 40 hotels on the Chaung Thar and nearby Shwe Thaung Yan beachfronts, only around 10 remain open, with limited guest occupancy.
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A Chaung Thar resident said that those who rely on tourism for their livelihoods are either returning to their hometowns or had fled in advance of the conflict.
“The village has only a small number of native residents, with many workers coming from outside,” he said. “People from surrounding areas often come here for work, but they are now returning to their home villages due to the lack of visitors.”
The resident said that about 10,000 people, including workers from other regions employed in various industries, depend on Chaung Thar and Shwe Thaung Yan beaches to earn a living.
Every day, 10-30 light trucks carrying refugees leave Chaung Thar, residents said. Several of the houses left locked after residents fled have been broken into and robbed, they said.
The junta has yet to issue any statement on fighting in the area and attempts by RFA to contact Khin Maung Kyi, the junta’s Ayeyarwady region spokesperson and social affairs minister, for comment went unanswered Wednesday.
AA advances
The fighting near Chaung Thar comes two weeks after the AA and allied forces captured Pathein’s Ma Gyi Zin village, on the border on Rakhine state, on Jan. 9. Residents told RFA that fighting has since intensified in nearby Baw Mi and other villages, where “hundreds of houses” have been destroyed by junta airstrikes.
Since early January, the AA, which controls nearly all townships in Rakhine state, has been attacking military bases in the bordering regions of Ayeyarwady, Bago and Magway, according to residents.
On Dec. 29, AA insurgents captured the west coast town of Gwa from the military, a major step toward their goal of taking the whole of Rakhine state, and then said they were ready for talks with the junta.
However, nearly a week later, the military had carried out at least six airstrikes since the proposal in the AA-controlled townships of Ponnagyun, Ann, Gwa and Myebon, killing 10 civilians and injuring more than a dozen others, residents told RFA Burmese.
On Monday, the AA said in a statement that fighting is ongoing in some areas along the Rakhine-Ayeyarwady border, as well as in Chin Su village, in Ayeyarwady’s Yegyi township.
A day later, the AA captured junta camps near two villages in Rakhine’s Ann township, near the state’s border with Magway region’s Ngape township, the group announced Wednesday. Junta airstrikes were ongoing in the area on Thursday, a resident of Ngape told RFA, and residents of nine villages in Ann township — who have been trapped since fighting broke out in December — were attempting to seek shelter in the nearby jungle.
The fighting in Ayeyarwady prompted the U.K.‘s foreign ministry to issue a travel advisory for citizens planning to visit Pathein township and seven other townships in the region on Wednesday.
The ministry has also issued an advisory for travel to Myanmar’s Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Mon, Rakhine and northern Shan states, as well as the regions of Sagaing, Magway, Tanintharyi, and northern Mandalay.
Translated by Aung Naing and Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This story has been updated to include additional information on how the tourism industry has been affected by the fighting, recent AA advances, and the U.K.’s travel advisory.