Written By Myat Hnin Wai

Border News Agency
Mrauk-U, August 31

In the past, the journey from Rakhine to Yangon used to take an overnight trip by car, while by plane it took just over an hour. But now, people say it has become a nearly three-week ordeal filled with hardship and danger.

Travelers moving from areas controlled by the Arakan Army (AA) to Yangon, which is under junta control, said they had to risk their lives crossing a perilous overland route.

Those who braved this treacherous journey explained that they had to entrust their fate to chance while passing through fields filled with landmines, and also endure crossing the vast, towering Rakhine Roma mountain range, suffering from thirst and exhaustion along the way.

Those who made the journey themselves said they had to walk on foot for about three weeks (eighteen days), trekking through dense forests and rugged mountains that cut across the divide of Myanmar.

“I had to walk across the Arakan Mountain range. I was afraid of being arrested too. I can’t even describe how exhausting the journey was. It felt like dying without actually dying. Altogether it took eighteen days,” said Ko Maung Soe, who trekked for eighteen days on jungle paths from eastern Roma in Arakan toward Yangon, crossing the steep Rakhine mountain range.

He explained that because the junta military shut down and cut off all the highways during the Arakan war, he was left without work and faced livelihood hardships. That forced him to seek a way to reach his family in Yangon, even though the journey was extremely difficult.

The junta has cut off all road transport routes and only kept air travel open. But according to Arakan residents, the junta demands various documents and large sums of money from travelers before granting them permission to fly.

Ko Maung Soe, who had been living in Sittwe, said that after the outbreak of the decisive Arakan war, checks and arrests became more frequent in the city, forcing him to flee to his native town of Pauktaw.

He explained that he was formerly a government schoolteacher, but after salaries were stopped and he had no income at all, he survived in his village by tutoring children to cover his family’s basic needs.

“But even after teaching tuition for a whole month, I could only earn around 120,000 kyat, while just food expenses for a month cost nearly 100,000 kyat. So, I had to rely on money my family in Yangon sent me every month,” Ko Maung Soe said.

He added that during this time, phone and internet connections were cut off, leaving him unable to contact his family. And when he fell ill, there were no clinics available to seek medical treatment.

That was why Ko Maung Soe said he finally decided to leave Arakan where jobs were scarce, basic food prices were soaring, and healthcare was out of reach—and make his way to Yangon where his family lives.

“At first, I tried to endure it. I told myself I would just keep teaching children here in my own land. But when I could no longer contact my family, I became deeply worried. I was also in poor health myself, and there was no clinic to go to. Every month I had to rely only on the money my family sent. In the end, I decided I had to leave. The main reason was that I couldn’t stay in touch with my family,” Ko Maung Soe said.

In Arakan, many young people like Ko Maung Soe are unemployed, and with phone and internet connections cut off, they are facing even greater difficulties, residents say.

According to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on August 12, more than sixty percent of young people in Arakan want to leave the region due to the lack of job opportunities, ongoing human rights violations, and military conscription laws.

In Arakan, nearly all former government employees have lost their salaries. Some are now serving under the Arakan People’s Revolutionary Government, receiving only a small monthly stipend, but the majority have become unemployed, according to locals.

In addition, people who had been working in private companies or running their own businesses also lost their jobs and livelihoods. Those who used to earn through online freelance work or so-called “work from home” jobs were also left unemployed after internet connections were cut off, residents said.

Ko Maung Soe, who had struggled to flee from Sittwe—a junta-controlled area—only after heavy fighting and with great difficulty in early 2024, said he spent more than a year sheltering from the conflict in his native village in Pauktaw Township, struggling alone just to survive.

Later, after the Arakan Army announced its military conscription law, he decided during the mid-monsoon season of 2025 to leave for Yangon and began searching for connections.

In the end, he said, he managed to link up with a broker who arranged to take him along jungle routes toward Yangon.

He explained that along the entire journey, no food or lodging expenses were included. Instead, each traveler had to pay the brokers 1.8 million kyat per person as a guide fee and travel arrangement cost in order to reach Yangon, and only then were they taken on the journey.

“They had to drink stream water along the way. In the forest, they slept without mosquito nets, so malaria was common. Some even carried malaria parasites with them from Rakhine. This year, there are quite a number of malaria cases even in Yangon,” said a nurse working at a junta-run hospital in Yangon.

A local social worker from Ann said that, according to the information he received, no fewer than seven people died along the way from malaria while attempting to cross the Rakhine Roma mountain range and travel through the jungle routes toward central Myanmar.

He explained that after five nights on the road, Ko Maung Soe and his group eventually reached a spot at the foot of the mountains, on the border between Magway Region and Arakan.

There, they had to set up camp and wait for more than a week, monitoring the situation and the condition of the route before moving forward.

They managed to pass through the areas controlled by the Arakan Army without being arrested and continued successfully, but ahead of them lay the renewed danger of being caught by junta soldiers, junta-appointed officials, and security forces.

The junta, which now calls itself the “Military Commission,” has been tightly inspecting and arresting Rakhine travelers carrying 11/ national ID cards as they journey from Arakan toward central Myanmar. Families of those who attempted the trip said that by now, hundreds have already been detained along the way.

Locals said that during the decisive Arakan war, civilians fleeing from townships such as Thandwe, Taunggoke, Ann, and Gwa were stopped at inspection gates inside Ayeyarwady Region, where junta forces arrested and jailed some of them.

In addition, they said arrests also took place against those traveling by plane from Sittwe and Kyaukphru to Yangon.

According to information from the Arakan People’s Revolutionary Government, during the decisive Arakan war, the junta forces arrested 947 civilians.

Because of this, Ko Maung Soe and others said they lived in constant fear, never knowing on which day, at what time, or by whom they might be taken away. They could not move around freely in the rural areas at the foot of the Rakhine mountains, and had to survive by relying only on the food supplies delivered to them by brokers.

“Since Rakhine people holding 11/ ID cards were at risk of being arrested, two members of our group tried to travel with fake Magway IDs on a highway bus—but they got arrested. After that, the rest of us didn’t dare to go either. We ended up staying stuck there for a long time, waiting for over a week,” Ko Maung Soe said.

“After waiting for more than a week, they continued their journey step by step—taking highway buses, trains, and motorcycles and after nearly twenty days, they finally reached Yangon,” he said.

“First, we arrived at the main station. Then, we were taken to the highway bus station. There were even people heading to Malaysia among us. It was only after reaching the bus gate that I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. The whole journey, my heart was pounding with fear,” said Ko Maung Soe.

“After the exhausting 18-day journey, I finally reached my family in Yangon and felt some relief for a short while. But even now, I still live every day with constant fear and anxiety,” said Ko Maung Soe.

Ko Maung Soe said the junta military, which is already suffering heavy troop losses in the nationwide resistance war, is continuing to forcibly recruit new cadets. He added that in Yangon and other areas under junta control, young people are being arbitrarily abducted, sent to military training, and pushed to the frontlines.

“I don’t even dare to go outside. Quite a number of young people from our neighborhood have already been taken away,” Ko Maung Soe said.

The junta’s actions of arresting travelers and forcibly conscripting people for military service violate the right to freedom of movement guaranteed under the international human rights treaties that Myanmar has signed, and also amount to the commission of war crimes, according to human rights and war crimes monitoring groups.

The Arakan People’s Authority announced on May 22 that it had enacted the National Defense Emergency Provision (NDEP) on March 18.

As a result, men aged 18 to 45 and women aged 18 to 25 are being conscripted through a lottery system, while people living in areas under the control of the Arakan Army are banned from traveling outside the Arakan region.

In the final phase of the Arakan offensive, the Arakan Army has taken full control of 15 townships, including Paletwa, leaving only Sittwe, Kyaukphru, and Manaung townships still to be captured.

Although the Arakan Army has organized all of its controlled areas into eight districts and established governing mechanisms under the Arakan People’s Authority, local residents say they still do not have freedom of movement, as those holding 11/ ID cards are not yet allowed to travel freely.

Since the start of the Arakan war, civilians have been cut off from phone and internet connections, leaving them trapped between areas controlled by the Arakan Army and those under the junta’s control.

Civilians living between areas controlled by the Arakan Army and those under junta control are reportedly bearing the brunt of military and political clashes, experiencing war crimes and human rights violations as they become trapped in the crossfire.

As a result, holders of the 11/ national identity cards are left without basic rights and freedom of movement, and Arakan residents say they are anxiously waiting and hoping for the day when the country can be peacefully reunited and normal life restored.