A 3 day of heavy fighting between Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine state, led more than 3,000 civilians to flee in Rathedaung and Maungdaw township. The fight started on 12th July near Rathedaung’s Koe Tan Kauk village and Chain Khar Lain village and in Maungdaw’s Sar Ngan Chaung village. The combat lasted until 14th July, the day on which the civilians were killed and injured.
On Thursday, the Myanmar military’s information team said in a Facebook post that AA soldiers stationed around three villages in Rathedaung township were “using villagers as human shields” to commit terrorist acts and to block the lines of communication in the area.
One of the civilians who left her home in Aung Thuka village named Aye Hlaing Chey said to RFA, “They are very inhumane. When they entered the village, they fired their guns, and we didn’t have any weapons to resist them. We could barely find a meal to support ourselves, so in the end, we decided to flee our homes.” Another villager Khine Win, who has an adolescent son and daughter said she left her home because she feared that soldiers would torture civilians who live there.
