The Arakan National Council is one of three armed groups in Myanmar fighting for greater autonomy for Rakhine State.
The Arakan National Council (ANC), a Rakhine armed group based in Kayin State, has started fighting alongside the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) against the Myanmar military, its leader said on Friday.
ANC commander-in-chief Colonel Min Tun announced the move following the seizure of another Tatmadaw base in Kayin State’s Hpapun (Mutraw) District earlier in the day.
Colonel Min Tun told Myanmar Now that the Oo Thu Hta base fell easily to a combined force of KNLA and ANC troops on Friday morning. A large stash of artillery weapons was also seized in the attack, he added.
“The enemy retreated because they lacked manpower. It wasn’t a difficult battle where we had to struggle to seize it. Since they were short-handed, they went for aid from the Thai authorities and joined another base,” he said.
The ANC, which has an estimated strength of around 100 troops, was part of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an umbrella group of ethnic armies.
The ANC is one of three Rakhine nationalist groups operating armies in the country. The other two are the Arakan Liberation Party, which is a signatory to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), and the United League of Arakan (ULA).
The ANC had been in talks with the government to sign the NCA, but negotiations ended in 2018.
Of the three groups, the ULA, which was founded near the Chinese border, is militarily the most powerful. Its armed wing, the Arakan Army (AA), saw intense clashes with the military in Rakhine and southern Chin State before last year’s election.
“There have been frontline battles, but mainly we’re responsible for providing aid for the IDPs in those areas,” Colonel Min Tun said of the ANC’s involvement in those clashes.
A KNLA official confirmed that the Oo Thu Hta base was set on fire and destroyed after weapons found there were confiscated by its troops.
The KNLA’s Brigade 5 also seized the military’s Thee Mu Hta base in Hpapun District on March 27 and the Thaw Le Hta outpost on the Thai-Myanmar border on April 27.
source myanmar-now