The armed clashes between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army of the ethnic Buddhist Rakhine further escalated this week.
While there are no signs of slowing down of the armed clashes in Punnagyun and Paletwa Townships, clashes have also resurged in Buthidaung Township.
Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) Director General (DG) Dr Wakar Uddin submitted a report in this regard on Monday.
The report said that while Myanmar is scrambling to cope with the increasing threat of Covid-19 pandemic, the military is poised to escalate armed confrontation with ethnic armed groups in the country, particularly in the Rakhine state, despite numerous calls from the international community for stabilization of Arakan where the threat of Covid-19 is increasing at an alarming rate.
The report titled “Rohingya Union Narrative Report to OIC Development on the ground in Arakan State, Myanmar” said on April 24, four civilians were killed and two others were injured in shootings in Minbya Township in Arakan.
Three Buddhist Rakhine residents, one from Na Yan Village and two from Pyi Taw Thar ward of Minbya, and a 15-year- old Rohingya child from Sa Ma Lel Village were shot by the Myanmar military, according to reports from The Irrawaddy.
During the shooting, 60-year-old Buddhist Rakhine man from Na Yan village and the Rohingya boy from Sa Ma Lel village were killed while herding their cows.
In another incident two people were shot in Minbya. “It was around 8pm, my younger brother and his friend were riding a motorbike in the town, and apparently encountered a military column and they were shot,” The Irrawaddy has quoted U Thein Tun Oo from Pyi Taw Thar ward as saying.
The same day, a resident of Ponetha Paletaung village in Minbya Township who was returning by boat to the village, was fired upon by an armed vessel of the Burmese military and killed, according to sources.
“We are very scared of two things now - the coronavirus and the Burmese military; we are afraid to stay in the village,” a village resident said, according to a ground source.
On April 22, the clashes broke out on the eastside of the Rohingya village of Cindi Ferang at the foothill.
Artillery shells, apparently directed towards the trenches and landmines set up by the Arakan Army, landed on the village. However, no casualties among the village residents were reported.
