The army led a crackdown against the Rohingya in western Rakhine state in 2017, justifying the violence as necessary to flush out militants from the stateless minority. The rebels accuse the military, known in Myanmar as the Tatmadaw, of deploying heavy artillery against villagers. “People are trapped by the fighting,” a spokesman for the Arakan Army Khine Thukha told AFP, accusing the army of commandeering churches, schools and monasteries. This week a remote-controlled mine attack hit a convoy carrying the western territory’s chief minister, who escaped unharmed. Rakhine state was notably sidelined in an unexpected unilateral ceasefire announced by the military in December that only covered conflicts in the northeast of the country.

Source: The Guardian January 03, 2019 11:48 UTC