Weekly Monitoring of Arakan Conflict

Burmase version

November 20-26 Overview

Background

This report is a part of the ‘weekly conflict monitoring report’ of the Center for Arakan Studies (CAS), mainly focusing on conflict scenarios and civilian causalities. Its purposes are to report the state of civilian causalities due to the armed conflicts that cover death, injury and arrest to the civilian population and monitor the trends and impacts of the armed conflicts in Arakan. The report has described the number of civilian deaths, arrest, and injury along its locations and causes. The data collected in the report are mainly based on the local media agencies, and phone communication on the ground situations and have addressed the situations from November 20 to 26, 2023.

A. Civilian Casualties and Arrests

Between November 20 and 26, 2023, there were at least 125 affected civilian populations. Among them, at least 94 civilians were arrested while another 26 were injured. The total number of civilian deaths is 5 in line with the report and among them, 4 were male, and 1 was female. Among the 26 injured population, males and females are 10 and 15 respectively while the rest 1 person is yet to confirm. Among the affected population, at least 10 persons under the age of 18 have been killed, injured or arrested. On account of the ethnic and religious backgrounds, the affected civilians included Rakhine, Muslim including Rohingya, and Maramagyi.

B. Causes of the Causalities

The key reasons that affected the civilian population included artillery attacks, gunshots, air strikes and drone attacks. line with the figure, it can be observed that the civilians are mainly killed due to artillery attacks by the junta soldiers, accounting to five casualties within a week reportedly. Moreover, the air strike caused the injury of the highest number of civilians (9) followed by the artillery attacks (8) and drop boom (7) respectively.

C. Locations of the Causalities and Arrests

Within a week reportedly, a total of five civilians were killed in five different townships such as Pauktaw, Min-Bya, Mrauk-U, Rathedaung and Maungdaw. The highest injured population is reported in Paletwa (9) followed by Pauktaw (5) and Rathedaung (5) respectively. However, the arrested numbers of civilians are the highest in Sittwe (84) followed by Ponnagyun (5).

Conclusion

The total number of the affected civilian population this week (November 20-26) has slightly declined to the previous week November 13-19 in which there were at least 190 affected people. The number of civilians being killed, injured and arrested also decreased from 38 to 5, 42 to 26 and 110 to 94 respectively. While the highest civilian deaths in the previous week were caused by gunshots, it was the artillery attacks that killed the largest civilian number in this week. In terms of locations, while Pauktaw occupied the highest number of civilian deaths in the previous week, the five townships experienced the same amount of death in this week.

About the Report

This report is part of the Center for Arakan Studies’ (CAS) weekly conflict monitoring report, primarily focusing on conflict scenarios and civilian casualties in Arakan. Its purpose is to document the impact of armed conflicts on civilians, including deaths, injuries, and arrests. The report details the number of civilian deaths, arrests, and injuries, along with their locations and causes. Data for this report are mainly sourced from local media agencies and phone communications regarding on-the-ground situations. It covers the period from November 13 to 19, 2023.

download for PDF (English)

download for PDF (Burmase)