#1 A powerful ethnic armed group in western Myanmar says that it is now in full control of the country’s border with Bangladesh, after overcoming the final Myanmar military base in the town of Maungdaw. The Arakan Army (AA), which is fighting to create an autonomous state for the Rakhine ethnic group in western Myanmar, seized the military stronghold known as Border Guard Post No. 5 near Maungdaw... “The Arakan Army successfully captured and neutralized the last remaining outpost… in the Maungdaw region,” it said in a statement quoted by Radio Free Asia.
The statement added that Myanmar army personnel members who were defending the base were trying to flee across the Naf River, which forms the border with Bangladesh, “using motorboats and canoes.” [The key point:] The AA claimed that the regime troops were accompanied by Muslim Rohingya fighters.
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