Six men from Khamaung Seik village in northern Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, have been missing since Friday, according to relatives.

Three of them went missing while sending food supplies to a border guard police outpost at mile post No. 43 some six miles northwest of Khamaung Seik village, said Ko Ba Maung, the brother of one of the three missing villagers.

“They are auto-rickshaw drivers,” he told DMG. “They went to the border guard police outpost Friday morning to deliver their order, dried fish, and vegetables. At around 1 p.m., a lieutenant from that outpost phoned and asked me if the foodstuffs had been delivered. I told him that they had left a few hours ago, and asked him if they had not yet arrived. He said not yet.”

Three other villagers who went fishing at a place about one mile west of Khamaung Seik village also went missing the same day, said family members.

“We don’t know which group has abducted them. They have not yet arrived back. We are concerned,” said a relative of one of the men.

Military tensions are running high between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army in Maungdaw Township, where the two sides have clashed in recent weeks.

Khamaung Seik is home to more than 200 residents who moved there from Waila Taung village due to the military-induced upheaval across much of northern Arakan State in 2017.