300 Myanmar junta troops who fled attack return from Bangladesh

Some 300 members of a junta army unit and a border police pressure who fled to Bangladesh throughout an assault by the insurgent Arakan Military have been repatriated to Myanmar, in response to a number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

They had been returned by sea on Thursday following a handover ceremony in Cox’s Bazar that was attended by 5 Myanmar junta officers and Myanmar’s ambassador to Bangladesh, a Rohingya refugee instructed Radio Free Asia.

“We realized that 5 representatives, together with a police colonel of the Border Guard Police, got here,” the Rohingya refugee mentioned. “Additionally, we realized that Amb. Aung Kyaw Moe met with the chief of Border Guard Bangladesh and handed them over.”

Video confirmed uniformed Bangladesh guards escorting the junta troops and officers – a few of them wounded – onto a ship. 

Cox’s Bazar is positioned on southeast Bangladesh’s coast close to Myanmar’s western Rakhine state. Over the past decade, virtually 1 million Rohingya refugees have fled from Myanmar to the Cox’s Bazar space, which has turn into the world’s largest refugee camp. 

The junta border guards who crossed over to Bangladesh had been retreating from an assault by the ethnic Arakan Military on the Taung Pyo Let Yar outpost and a close-by strategic hill in Rakhine’s Maungdaw township on Feb. 4.

AA takes management of Myebon

The assault marked the most recent blow to Myanmar’s army junta in Rakhine state, the place the Arakan Military, or AA, ended a ceasefire in November that had been in place because the junta assumed energy in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat.

A complete of 330 folks crossed over to Bangladesh in early February, together with Lt. Col. Kyaw Naing Soe, the commander of the junta’s No. 2 Border Guard Police battalion, 302 troopers, 4 members of the family, two different army personnel, 18 immigration officers and 4 civilians, in response to RFA sources on the Bangladesh border.

Elsewhere in Rakhine, the AA mentioned it has captured all army council camps and police stations in Myebon township. The Arakan Military mentioned in a press release on Thursday that it now controls seven cities within the state.

The AA has just lately launched offensives in townships close to the state capital of Sittwe, together with Rathedaung and Buthidaung.

There are studies that the AA has warned the junta’s regional operations command in Sittwe, the Rakhine state capital, to give up.

The junta has not launched a press release about latest developments in Rakhine, and RFA’s calls to Hla Thein, junta’s spokesperson and lawyer basic of the Rakhine state, went unanswered on Friday.

Insurgent victory in Kayah state

The junta has additionally suffered a loss to rebels in northeast Kayah state, the place the Karenni Nationalities Protection Drive, or KNDF, introduced Friday that it had gained full management of Shadaw metropolis after a month-long battle.

The KNDF started attacking junta outposts surrounding a strategic hill in Shadaw on Jan. 15, the group mentioned in a press release. 

On Jan. 21, they started a siege to a junta base after troops refused to give up and the junta dropped in one other 70 troops by helicopter, the KNDF mentioned. A last assault on the bottom started on Monday. 

Greater than 160 junta troopers, together with a colonel and a lieutenant colonel, had been both killed or captured, the KNDF mentioned.

The junta hasn’t launched a press release on the battle. RFA’s calls to junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun to hunt feedback on the KNDF’s claims went unanswered.

Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.