A hostage standoff between the Arakan Army (AA) and Tatmadaw ended with at least 14 dead, including an unknown number of captives.

Arakan Army, an armed ethnic group in Rakhine State, captured a passenger ferry carrying 168 passengers, including dozens of military personnel. AA soldiers shortly released 110 hostages, mostly women and children, claiming that they were only interested in the suspected soldiers. The remaining hostages were loaded onto three boats, two of which were soon sunk by military attack helicopters. At the time of writing, specific details concerning the death toll have yet to be released. Both sides blame the other for the deaths. The Myanmar army claims the AA used the hostages as human shields, while the AA claims they were merely transporting the prisoners to a safe place for questioning.

In early 2019, renewed conflict broke out between the Tatmadaw and AA, and recently the AA has carried out similar abductions. Indeed, at the time of writing the group is holding 31 hostages it captured in a previous operation.

The conflict with the AA is not Myanmar’s only ethnic conflict in Rakhine State. The Myanmar army has also skirmished with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), as a consequence of which more than 750,000 Rohingya Muslims were fled across the border to Bangladesh. In the past, AA has assisted the Myanmar army in operations against the ARSA. These conflicts continue to harm the Myanmar economy by driving away tourists and foreign investors.