Junta orders evacuations around embattled state capital

THE COUNTRY’S junta has ordered thousands of people living outside a state capital threatened by ethnic rebels to leave their homes and head into the city, residents said.Sittwe is one of the few holdouts for junta troops in western Rakhine state, where the military has lost swathes of territory to the Arakan Army (AA) in recent weeks.

The AA, which says it is fighting for autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine population, has vowed to capture Sittwe, home to an India-backed deep sea port and around 200,000 people.