Bangladesh summons Myanmar ambassador over border skirmish
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it summoned Burma’s regime ambassador Kyaw Soe Moe on Tuesday to discuss fighting between the Arakan Army (AA), the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA), and the Rohingya Islami Mahaz, near Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, about 63 miles (101 km) southeast of Cox’s Bazar, where 1.2 million Rohingya live in refugee camps.
Bangladesh media reported that at least two people, including a 12-year-old girl, were injured in Cox’s Bazar district during fighting there on Jan. 11. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said it detained 57 members from the three Rohingya armed groups, who reportedly crossed back into Bangladesh to flee AA counterattacks, and filed criminal cases against 53 of them for illegal entry into the country.
Bangladeshi authorities placed the 168 mile (271 km) long border with Burma on “high alert” on Jan. 11. The AA seized Maungdaw in December 2024, which brought the entire Burma-Bangladesh border under its control. The AA has seized 14 of Arakan’s 17 townships since it launched an offensive on Nov. 13, 2023. It and the three Rohingya armed groups have not released any statements.
Min Aung Hlaing blames Arakan Army for destruction
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Youth Peace Forum 2026 in Naypyidaw on Tuesday, regime leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing blamed the AA for “creating losses and destruction” in Arakan after he claimed the military rebuilt areas destroyed by Cyclone Mocha in May 2023. He added that the state had been “an example of peace brought by the military.”
“We worked to restore Sittwe within six months. But everything was destroyed in 2024 when the AA [attacked regime forces],” Min Aung Hlaing said at the event on Jan. 13. A resident of Thandwe Township, who was displaced from his home due to fighting between regime and resistance forces, told DVB that destruction caused by regime airstrikes far outnumbers that caused by the AA.
Residents of the state capital Sittwe and Kyaukphyu townships, which are under regime control, told DVB that fighting between the AA and regime forces took place on Dec. 27 – one day before voting began there, as well as in Manaung Township, during the first phase of military elections on Dec. 28. The AA offensive in Arakan launched on Nov. 13, 2023 has expanded into neighbouring Chinland, Bago, Magway and Ayeyarwady regions.
Regime Minister Ko Ko Hlaing, from the Ministry of the President’s Office, in the courtroom at the International Court of Justice during hearings into genocide committed by Burma against the Rohingya in The Hague, Netherlands, on Jan. 12. (Credit: Reuters)
The Gambia v Myanmar case at UN top court continues
The regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release on Tuesday that by sending a delegation from Naypyidaw, led by regime Minister Ko Ko Hlaing, to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearings into Gambia v. Myanmar, also known as the Rohingya genocide case, it is demonstrating “its respect for international law and the judicial role of the Court.”
Gambian Justice Minister Dawda Jallow told ICJ judges at the start of hearings on Monday that the Rohingya were simple people with dreams of living in peace and dignity. “They have been targeted for destruction [by the military],” he said. “Myanmar has denied them their dream, in fact it turned their lives into a nightmare subjecting them to the most horrific violence and destruction one could imagine.”
In 2019 preliminary hearings at the ICJ, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi rejected Gambia’s accusations of genocide as “incomplete and misleading”. This is the first genocide case the ICJ is hearing in full in more than a decade. The regime, which seized power in a military coup on Feb. 1, 2021 and jailed Aung San Suu Kyi, has denied the allegations of genocide against the Rohingya.
News by Region
BAGO—Residents of Htantabin Township told DVB that a deputy district administrative director was killed and a member of the district election commission was injured in a drone attack carried out by an unknown armed group on the Htantabin Township General Administration Office during the second round of voting on Sunday.
Htantabin is located about 105 miles (170 km) north of the region’s capital Bago. It was among 12 townships included in the second phase of the military elections. Eight townships held voting in the first phase on Dec. 28, while the remaining eight are scheduled to vote in the final phase on Jan. 25. The region has a total of 28 townships.
SAGAING—Regime media reported that the annual Naga New Year festival will be held today in Lahe, Leshi, and Nanyun townships, located in the Naga Self-Administered Zone (SAZ). It added that 17 committees and 10 sub-committees under the regime’s local authorities organized this new year’s event.
All three townships in the Naga SAZ were among 12 included in the first phase of military elections on Dec. 28. Preliminary results shared by the Union Election Commission stated that the Naga National Party (NNP) beat the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), winning all three parliamentary seats in the Naga SAZ, as well as in Hkamti Township.
Residents in Katha Township, who have been displaced from their homes, told DVB that there are rumors of burglaries at houses left unattended since the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) attacked the regime’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 309 on Dec. 28. Katha is located 223 miles (359 km) north of the region’s capital Monywa.
A Katha resident told DVB that he saw fires and thick smoke from inside the town. A source close to the KIA confirmed to DVB that fighting is still ongoing but refused to disclose further details. The U.N. reported on Jan. 13 that at least 10,000 Katha residents had fled fighting between regime and resistance forces.
YANGON—A member of the People’s Pioneer Party (PPP) told DVB that its chairperson Thet Thet Khine was arrested at her home on Dhammazedi Road by two “high-ranking” military officers and 20 plainclothes officers on Tuesday. The source added that a PPP executive committee member was also arrested on Jan. 13.
“We still don’t know the reason for her arrest,” the source said. Thet Thet Khine was disqualified in October by the UEC from running in the military elections due to reported unpaid debts. The jewelry magnate founded the PPP in 2019 after leaving the National League for Democracy (NLD) party in 2018.
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