Manaung residents told that in Manaung, where the military has been stationed indefinitely despite no active conflict, phone and internet services have been disrupted due to fuel shortages.
Manaung township is one of the townships in Rakhine State that has not experienced conflict between Arakan Army (AA) and military council. However, since the start of the Rakhine conflict, the military council has imposed bans on everything, including travel and food transportation of Manaung township.
A resident of Manaung reported that the military council has imposed a complete ban on all of the services. As a result, there is no fuel available, and phone and internet services are down in the area.
He said, “The lack of phone service is because there is no fuel to power the generators that are running in the phone towers. So phone tower can not run anymore. And because of the rainy season, it is really difficult to use the solar system.”
In Manaung Township, phone towers have to operate with generators in order to provide phone and internet services.
A Manaung resident said that the people from Manaung are facing a lot of difficulties in communication due to the interruption of phone and internet services and businessmen are also facing difficulties in currency conversion issues.
He said, "It's getting worse these days. Properly, we can't even talk on the phone. We can't withdraw money and it's very difficult. I've lost contact with everyone."In addition, the military council has imposed long-term bans on fishing and travel, severely impacting the livelihoods of the people living in Manaung. Due to the lack of medicine and medical equipments in the township, there are also many difficulties for health-related issues. As a result, they are facing significant hardships.
In Manaung Township, where everything has been banned for the local people, the military council is transporting supplies and resupplying the military force without any hindrance.
Translated by Nga Lar Guage
