Local residents said that the SAC has restricted the transportation of food, including rice, and fuel to the Daletchaung area, where the military headquarters of the coup military is located, until December 19.
They also say that due to the continued restrictions, the commodity prices are high and they are also facing difficulties in basic human needs and medical treatment.
In Rakhine, a temporary ceasefire between the SAC’s military and the Arakan Army (AA) began on November 26, but the SAC continues to restrict it.
“We are not allowed to transport rice and fuel. We cannot transport construction materials. Even cement can’t,” a resident in Daletchaung told the MPA.
Locals also say that the Daletchaung area is part of the Ann twonship, but there is only waterway and transportation is difficult, as well as there is no paddy to grow rice, so the price of rice is increasing exponentially because rice is not grown in the region.
Locals say that there are 42 villages in the Ann Township, Daletchaung area, and more than ten thousand Chin, Rakhine, and other ethnic groups live there.
The Ann-Daletchaung waterway was reopened after a ceasefire between the two sides, but due to restrictions on the transportation of rice, fuel, and medicine, a bag of rice worth 40,000 kyats is being sold for up to 60,000 kyats, and a liter of gasoline that costs only 2,700 kyats in Ann Town is up to 3,500 kyats, the residents said.
“Since the first war, we have not been able to freely transport food into Daletchuang. There are many poor people here, and all of them are facing a lot of difficulties,” a resident in Daletchuang told the MPA.
Residents in that Daletchaung area have to earn a living by doing jobs such as fishing, picking vegetables, cutting wood, and cutting firewood, and there are no other jobs to do, and if they go to Ann town from that Daletchaung area to buy things, they have to pass through four checkpoints of the SAC troops, and if they don’t get permission from those gates, they won’t be allowed to travel.
For the first time during the 2019-2020 Rakhine conflict, the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar Military fought fiercely in Ann Township and the Daletchaung area.
In addition, the SAC military’s Western Regional Headquarters is located in Ann Township and has 28 battalions, deployed with a force of over ten thousand soldiers. Also, the Arakan Army (AA) has a Nova – 1 Military Regional Headquarters with a force of over ten thousand soldiers deployed and moved in parallel with the SAC troops.
In Rakhine, there is a ceasefire between the SAC and the Arakan Army (AA), but the SAC’s side has not reopened all roads and has continued to restrict the freedom of movement of the local people, the right to transport food and medicine, and hundreds of thousands of local people are said to be facing difficulties.