Some displaced villagers who returned to their homes last month amid a lull in fighting in Rakhine state are moving back into temporary camps ahead of the expiration this week of an unofficial cease-fire between Myanmar forces and the Arakan Army, RFA reported.
The two sides have engaged in warfare for two years in northern Rakhine state over the ethnic army’s attempt to seek greater autonomy for Rakhine people.
About 300 civilians have died in the hostilities and a total of roughly 230,000 others have been displaced, thousands of whom returned to their villages as the fighting subsided. The Rakhine Ethnics Congress, an NGO that tallies internally displaced persons (IDPs) estimates that at least 30,000 civilians returned to their permanent homes when the fighting stopped.