The Arakan Army (AA) ambushed a junta food convoy at the border of Ponnagyun and Kyauktaw townships on Thursday morning.

The two sides clashed for nearly half an hour after the AA ambushed the junta convoy supplying food to a military tactical command base on Mt. Nanwin, near Buddhaw Village in Ponnagyun Township, a local told DMG.

“Soldiers were travelling to send food supplies to the tactical command base when they were ambushed by the AA,” he said.

Myanmar military troops have been deployed at the base following fighting near Buddhaw Village in March 2019.

The regime’s Battalion No. 539, based at the foot of Mt. Kan Sauk, fired artillery support for the military convoy following Thursday’s attack, forcing the residents of at least six villages to flee their homes.

A resident who left their home in Lan Pike Kwin Village said: “We have fled because the military is shelling Mount Kan Sauk. We are in Aung Zeya Village now.”

DMG was unable to obtain comment from Arakan State Security and Border Affairs Minister Colonel Kyaw Thura or AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha.

Fighting between the military and the AA has intensified more days than not since early August. Junta desertions are increasing due to heavy, related casualties in Arakan State and neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township, the AA said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that morale issues were a contributing factor.

As of press time, the Myanmar military had not yet responded to the AA statement.

A border post marking the boundary between Ponnagyun and Kyauktaw townships is pictured in November 2021.