A junta navy ship anchored off Maday Island, the site of Chinese backed infrastructure projects in Kyaukphyu Township, Arakan (Rakhine) State has been firing at passing locals’ boats every day.

Residents of villages on Maday Island, including the villages of Madaykyun, Mawygyi, Kyaungtin, Wartaw, Kalaba Taung, and Mikyaung Yaethaunt, regularly use small motor boats to travel between villages. The junta ship anchored off Maday Island often fires on such boats when it spots them, causing panic amongst villagers.

A woman from Madaykyun Village said to DMG: “We rely on these boats to travel between villages for trade and social reasons since waterways are our main way of getting around here. The junta ship often fires its machine guns at our boats whenever it spots them, and this happens every day. So far, no one has been hurt, but some villagers have had bullets land and sink very close to their boats.”

There are a number of major Chinese-backed infrastructure investment projects on Maday Island that are heavily guarded by the junta. They include  oil and gas pipelines, a deep-sea port, and an oil storage facility.

The junta navy ship is anchored between Maday Island and Ramree Island, opposite the mouth of the Mikyaung Yaethaunt Stream on Ramree Island, from where it closely monitors local maritime travel and fires machine guns at passing motorboats every day.

Another local said: “There have been some shots fired from that navy ship before, but they were mostly just warning shots. Lately, though, it’s started actually shooting at boats. So, traveling isn’t very safe anymore. We’re really worried that someone might get hit one day.”

This aggressive firing on civilian motorboats around Maday Island poses a major threat to the safety of local communities, who mainly travel on waterways.

Fighting between the AA and junta is still ongoing in some areas of Kyaukphyu Township.