YANGON: Anti-junta fighters in Myanmar’s Chin state are trying to gain control of part of the porous border with India, after taking over two military outposts on the mountainous frontier, a rebel commander said, part of a wider offensive against the junta.

Dozens of rebels battled the Myanmar military from dawn to dusk on Monday to overrun two camps next to India’s Mizoram state, Chin National Front (CNF) Vice Chairman Sui Khar said.

The offensive, named by rebels as “Operation 1027” after the date it began, initially made inroads in junta-controlled areas on the border with China in Shan State, where military authorities have lost control of several towns and more than 100 security outposts.

“We are continuing our attacks in northern Shan State,” said Kyaw Naing, a spokesperson for the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, which is part of the operation.

Nearly 200 Rohingya refugees land in Indonesia

Fighting also erupted on two new fronts this week, in the western states of Rakhine and Chin, which sent thousands of people fleeing to Mizoram.

Rohingya refugees

Nearly 200 Rohingya refugees, including many women and children, landed in Indonesia’s westernmost province on Tuesday, a local official said, the largest contingent of the persecuted Myanmar minority to arrive in months.

Thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.

The group of 196 landed in a remote part of Aceh Province’s Pidie region, local navy commander Andi Susanto said in a statement. Some of the new arrivals immediately fled inland, according to Marfian, a spokesperson for the fishing community, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. “Ten… immediately fled to the nearby hills. It seems that they were the middlemen that intentionally brought the refugees to the area,” he said. The local government gave a lower number of seven who fled.

The refugees were being assisted by local authorities and residents. “Local people have provided food and drink for them as it is their habit of helping stranded Rohingyas,” Marfian said.

Images shared showed tired-looking refugees, including women holding babies in their arms, waiting on the beachside for help. More than 2,000 Rohingya are believed to have attempted the risky journey to Southeast Asian countries in 2022, according to the UN refugee agency.

Nearly 200 Rohingya died or went missing last year while attempting hazardous sea crossings, the agency has estimated. In March, 184 Rohingya refugees arrived in the eastern Aceh town of Peureulak after they were dropped at sea by boat and made to swim ashore.

A resident in Rakhine’s capital Sittwe and social media posts said that tanks had been seen on the streets of the city following the eruption of fighting in the western state.

The junta has imposed a curfew in Sittwe and residents have been ordered not to leave their homes after 9pm and businesses must close by 8.30pm or face legal action, according to a government document and media reports.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2023