Aid group says 4,000 displaced by battle for key Myanmar port site

Fierce fighting in Myanmar displaces 4,000 people near China-backed port, escalating conflict in Rakhine state.

Fierce fighting between Myanmar's military junta and ethnic minority rebels closing in on the planned site of a strategic China-backed port has displaced 4,000 people, a local aid worker said on Wednesday (March 5, 2025).

The Arakan Army (AA) is battling the military in western Rakhine state, where projects including oil pipelines, power plants and transport links are sprouting up with billions of dollars of Chinese funding.

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The region has emerged as a key front in Myanmar's highly fractured civil war, pitching a myriad of ethnic minority rebels and pro-democracy fighters against the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup.

New battles have flared since late last month around the town of Kyaukphyu, where the junta's key ally Beijing has pledged investment worth an estimated $9 billion for a deepwater port.

"Due to recent clashes, people from 10 villages around the fighting area have been fleeing," said Aung Aung, a representative of a local rescue committee.

"According to our data received, there's been around 4,000 people displaced," he told AFP, adding that the total number of people displaced in the area was now around 15,000.