NAYPYITAW (Aug. 16) — More than 600 ethnic Bengalis were massacred in Rakhine State’s Buthidaung Township by Arakan Army (AA) insurgents, a senior government spokesperson said on Friday.

Brigadier General Zaw Min Htun, spokesperson for Myanmar’s National Defence and Security Council (NDSC), said the massacre took place in  Htan Shauk Khan village on the eastern bank of the Mayu River. He said women and children were among the victims.

The incident occurred after AA forces seized the Regional Military Command Headquarters in early May 2024, leaving no Tatmadaw or police security presence in the area. “These events show the AA deliberately carried out mass killings and arson against Bengalis,” Zaw Min Htun said.

The AA began a sweeping offensive across Rakhine in November 2023, attacking security posts and towns. As fighting spread, Bengali communities held peaceful rallies calling for peace and rejecting the insurgents. Authorities said the AA targeted them in retaliation.

After Tatmadaw troops withdrew from Buthidaung on May 14, 2024, AA fighters entered the town, threatening residents and burning homes in seven wards. On May 17, drones bombed a school sheltering displaced Bengalis, wounding nearly 200 people, Zaw Min Htun said.

He added that on 5 August 2024, AA units also dropped bombs on displaced Bengalis waiting by boats on the Nat River near Maungdaw, massacring more than 200.

The government says it is providing humanitarian aid to displaced Bengalis in Sittwe and Yangon, while eyewitness accounts from survivors have described atrocities by the AA.

Ethnic tensions between Rakhine and Bengali communities have long fueled violence in the region. Zaw Min Htun said the latest incidents underline a deliberate strategy by the AA to massacre civilians.

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