Arakan Army tells people to evacuate from Maungdaw, Myanmar

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The validity of this article as a news story is, as written, disputed. Wikinews does not publish reports on events that are not sufficiently recent. For synthesis, new details must have come to light within the past five to seven days, and the news event itself must have happened within ten days. Unless sources can be found and a news event chosen to bring this article into compliance with those requirements, the article may be deleted. If any new details from the last five to seven days are newsworthy in their own right then an article could be written with these updates as the actual news event. Exceptions are possible where original reporting adds significant new and newsworthy information to the article. Note! Administrators carrying out cleanup work should take great care with items where original reporting is involved. Such should be moved to the original contributors' userspace, and a courtesy link to it added to their talk page. Please try to resolve objections on the discussion page, or move the article to Wikipedia or another sister project where it may be more relevant.

Tuesday, June 18, 2024 

The ULA Arakan Army Eagle as seen on the army's flag.
Image: Albert Poliakoff.

On Sunday, the Arakan Army told the people of the Maungdaw town, in Rakhine State of western Myanmar, to evacuate, starting at 9:00 p.m. local time (1500 UTC) on June 16. The Arakan Army has taken control of nine townships in Rakhine State since November 2023. The army has been fighting against the military junta that took control of Myanmar in a coup d'état in 2021.

There are approximately 70 thousand Rohingya people in Maungdaw, thousands of whom fled acts of violence in the nearby town of Buthidaung, according to Reuters. The Arakan Army has taken control of two exit routes from Maungdaw. The remaining route leads to Bangladesh, to which thousands of Rohingya escaped in May. A Bangladeshi foreign ministry official, who requested anonymity, told Reuters they would not allow any more Rohingya refugees.

Sources

• "Thousands of Rohingya feared trapped in fighting in western Myanmar" — Reuters, June 17, 2024
• Sebastian Strangio. "Myanmar Armed Group Calls for Evacuation as It Approaches Border Town" — The Diplomat, June 17, 2024