The junta has arrested four young displaced ethnic Arakan (Rakhine) adults living in a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Lemyethna Township, Ayeyarwady Region, accusing them of having links to the Arakan Army (AA).
The four, three men and one woman between the ages of 25 and 30 years, were originally from Gwa township in Arakan State. They were arrested and taken away by junta soldiers in Lemyethna Township’s Tonetaw Village on the evening of 2 July 2025, according to a resident of Lemyethna Township.
He said to DMG: “All four of those arrested are IDPs. They had fled to Tonetaw Village during the fighting in their hometown, Gwa Township. The village administrator was aware they were staying there. Now, the junta has arrested them, accusing them of being members of the AA.”
He added that IDPs driven out of Arakan State by fighting and currently sheltering in Ayeyarwady Region are very worried about their safety because the junta frequently arrests them on allegations of having links to the AA.
“We still don’t know where the four detainees have been taken. Arakan IDPs really need to stay extra cautious these days,” he added.
Previously, in mid-June 2025, the junta arrested 11 Arakan IDPs who were taking shelter in Myauksan Village, Yegyi Township, Ayeyarwady Region and also accused them of having ties to the AA. The arrested, eight men and three women, came from the Arakan State townships of Gwa and Kyaukphyu.
Gwa Township borders Ayeyarwady Region and came under the full control of the AA on 29 December 2024.
Since then, AA forces have been launching offensives against junta bases and positions in Ayeyarwady Region and the junta has become more hostile towards ethnic Arakan IDPs sheltering in Ayeyarwady Region.
It has been speculated that the junta has become more suspicious of IDPs from Arakan State and has been arresting more of them for alleged involvement with the AA because the AA is collaborating with local Ayeyarwady-based resistance forces for military operations against the junta.
The AA is currently carrying out military operations in collaboration with local resistance forces in the Ayeyarwady Region townships of Lemyethna, Ingapu, Thabaung, and Pathein.
Between 15 May and 30 June 2025, nine civilians were killed and about 20 injured in junta shelling, airstrikes, paramotor strikes and ground troop attacks in Lemyethna and Yegyi townships, where military tensions remain high, according to Tactical Command 29 of Ayeyarwady Region People's Defence Force (PDF).
On 4 July, junta aircraft bombed Sawpyar Village in Lemyethna Township, destroying several homes, according to another resident of Lemyethna Township.
He said: “Since April, everyone in the village had already evacuated, so no one got hurt. But some houses were destroyed by the bombing. The junta probably bombed the village because it suspected resistance forces were hiding there.”
The AA has, so far, seized at least 10 camps, police outposts, and temporary deployment sites from the junta in Ayeyarwady Region. Fighting is ongoing near the junta’s Artillery Battalion 344 base in Yegyi Township and along the Pathein-Monywa highway.
