The Arakan Army (; abbreviated AA), sometimes referred to as the Arakha Army (AA) is an ethnic-armed organisation based in Myanmar's Rakhine State (Arakan). Founded in April 2009, the Arakan Army is the military wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA). It is currently led by Commander-in-Chief Major General Twan Mrat Naing and vice deputy commander-in-chief Brigadier General Nyo Twan Awng. AA seeks a Rakhine State with greater autonomy from Myanmar's central government. It was declared a terrorist organization in 2020 by Myanmar, and again by the State Administration Council junta in 2024.
In the early 2010s, the Arakan Army fought alongside the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) against the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) in the Kachin conflict. Following the 2016 outbreak of conflict in Rakhine state, the AA became more heavily involved in the Arakan region. In 2019, the AA launched attacks on state security forces and the Myanmar Army responded, heightening clashes. The AA reached a ceasefire in late 2020 after eroding the central government's control in northern Rakhine. The power vacuum was filled by the AA over the next 18 months with state-building efforts, like their COVID-19 vaccine rollouts.
During the Myanmar civil war, the ceasefire broke down and armed clashes resumed in July 2022 after a Tatmadaw airstrike against an AA base. The two sides agreed to a temporary ceasefire in November 2022, reportedly for humanitarian reasons. This ceasefire lasted a year until November 2023, when AA launched a series of offensives coinciding with Operation 1027 that saw them rapidly take all of Mrauk-U District by 6 February 2024. They would continue to take towns, seizing Thandwe in July and Maungdaw in December 2024. The AA gained full control over the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in December 2024.
The armed group has been accused of committing war crimes and human rights abuses by human rights organizations, such as in the Hoyyar Siri massacre, against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
In June 2024, Twan Mrat Naing claimed that the AA strength had grown to at least 45,000 troops. Since early 2025, the Arakan Army is widely considered to be the most powerful armed group in Myanmar. It is the largest active non-state armed group in South and Southeast Asia, with estimated 40,000 regular troops. It has also become the patron of a network of other anti-junta armed groups.
Origin The Arakan Army was founded on 10 April 2009 along with its political wing, the United League of Arakan (ULA), in what it describes as its "temporary headquarters" in Laiza, Kachin State. According to Twan Mrat Naing, he and other founders of AA previously thought about joining either the Arakan Liberation Army or the National United Party of Arakan, but found these groups weakened. After a stint in India where they were left dissatisfied after "petty issues" from the leaders of the Arakan National Congress, they first established links with the Karen National Liberation Army and observed the KIA in 2006. The first batch of recruits for what would become AA was authorized in 2008.
Following training, the group planned to return to Arakan State and fight for self-determination; however, with the outbreak of fighting in Kachin State in June 2011, they were unable to. As a result, they took up arms against the Myanmar Army in support of the KIA. In 2014, the AA started a settlement in Rakhine State near the border with Bangladesh, and another near the border of Thai-Myanmar with which it has become much stronger and its combat abilities have been positively impacted.
In February 2015, the AA fought alongside the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), an ethnic armed group, and its ally the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in their conflict with the Myanmar Army. Hundreds of the Tatmadaw's soldiers were reportedly killed in this conflict. Later in 2015 they became active against the government of Myanmar, in the Arakan region. On 20 August 2015, the Arakan Army clashed with a group of Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), after ten of their horses were confiscated by the BGB earlier that day.
Naming On 10 April 2024, AA announced it was changing its name from Rakhain Tatdaw () to Arakha Tatdaw (). Spokesperson U Khaing Thu Kha, claimed "Arakha" represents everyone living in Rakhine State, regardless of background.အာရက္ခမိဘပြည်သူများသို့ မေတ္တာရပ်ခံပန်ကြားချက် (An appeal to the people of Arakha). 11 April 2024. Even though they claim to be diverse, activists have brought forth evidence of war crimes against Rohingyas following this announcement. However, AA continues to use the name "Arakan Army" on its English website.
Objectives
The Arakan Army claims that they stand for self-determination for the multi-ethnic Arakanese population as well as the safeguarding and promotion of the national identity and cultural heritage of the Arakan people. It aims to establish an "Arakan Nation" through the "Way of Rakhita". In an interview with the Arakha Media (AKK) conducted in August 2021, the Commander-in-chief of the Arakan Army stated that the political objective of the armed revolution is to restore the sovereignty of the Arakan, and there had been no bargaining in the attempt to regain the lost sovereignty and there would not be in the future either.
General Twan Mrat Naing has declared that the AA aims to clear the Myanmar military from Rakhine State. His goal is to establish a confederate region where the Rakhine people have the right to self-determination and to shape their own destiny.
On 10 April 2024, the Arakan Army rebranded its Arakanese name from "Rakhine Army" () to "Arakan Army" () to represent all people of Rakhine State.
Deployment Most AA soldiers were originally trained at the KIA Military Academy. Since 2014, the AA has set up its own training camps in Rakhine State. According to the Myanmar Peace Monitor, the AA had more than 1,500 troops in 2014, including personnel stationed in the Rakhine State near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh. The Irrawaddy stated in September 2015 that the AA had more than 2,500 troops and 10,000 personnel in their civilian wing. In June 2020, the AA chief claimed that the group has more than 20,000 soldiers. In a December 2021 interview, Twan Mrat Naing claimed that the AA had grown to 30,000 troops.
Although the AA was initially trained by the KIA, it later aligned itself more with the United Wa State Army (UWSA) through the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee. In 2020, India accused China of assisting rebel groups, including the UWSA and AA, by supplying weapons and providing hideouts within Indian territory. AA has received Chinese-made weapons, such as surface-to-surface missiles used during an attack on the Myanmar Navy in 2019.
According to The Irrawaddy report, the Arakan Army is relatively independent and less reliant on China compared to other ethnic armed groups. The Arakan Army also grew its influent providing support ranging from training to ammunition to at least 23 armed groups, mostly in the regions bordering Rakhine state.
Arakan Army enforces conscription for all residents over 18 in Rakhine state. Men (18–45) will train for two months and serve two years, while women (18–35) must also serve. According to AA representatives, non-Arakanese groups such as the Bamar and Rohingya are officially exempt from conscription, but individuals can join voluntarily.အာရက္ခတပ်တော် AA ကျင့်သုံးနေသည့် စစ်မှုမထမ်းမနေရစနစ်အကြောင်း – သိရသမျှ. Fadu Tun Aung. August 7, 2025. Arakan Army troops reportedly includes members of other ethnic groups beyond from Myanmar with Bangladeshi citizens from Chakma, Marma, and Tanchangya community.
Weaponry + Tank Destroyers (Assault Vehicle) Name Quantity Origin Image Remark WMA-301 Unknown The Arakan Army seized or destroyed an unknown number of WMA-301 Tank Destroyers from the Myanmar Army. Some of the seized vehicles have been seen being used against the Myanmar Army.
+ Armoured Vehicle Name Quantity Origin Image Remark MT-LB Unknown Three Brotherhood Alliance captured 2 MT-LbMSh vehicles during the siege of Muse-105 mile outpost.Brotherhood Alliance captures major trade zone on China-Myanmar border
+ Artillery Systems Name Quantity Origin Image Remark M101 howitzer Unknown 105 mm M2A1. Used during the siege of Western Command of the Myanmar Army.ရက္ခိုင်ပြည်၊ အမ်းမြို့နယ်၊ အကြမ်းဖက် ဖက်ဆစ် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အနောက်ပိုင်းတိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ် (နပခ) အား အာရက္ခတပ်တော်မှ တိုက်ခိုက်သိမ်းပိုက်ခဲ့သည့် ရုပ်သံမှတ်တမ်း M-56 Unknown 105 mm M56. Used during the siege of No.5 Border Guard Police Battalion in Maung Daw. D-30M Unknown An unknown number of D-30M Howitzers were seized during the Paletwa and Kyauktaw Battles. Arms Name Quantity Origin Image Reference Type 81 UWSA-variants 10000+ KO-10 10000+ KA2-5 10000+ G3 rifle Unknown Captured from Myanmar Army.Three Brotherhood Alliance claims military regime is on the verge of collapse. Over 6000 Junta Troops Surrender in Three-Month Span Than Lwin Times. January 31, 2024MA-series rifles UnknownCaptured from Myanmar Army.AA Displays Seized Weapons and Ammunition from Mrauk-U Based Junta Troops Narinjara News. February 12, 2024MG3 machine gun UnknownCaptured from Myanmar Army.ပလက်ဝဒေသမှ AA သိမ်းဆည်းရမိသော သံချပ်ကာ ကားများနှင့် လက်နက်ခဲယမ်းများ Mizzima. January 18, 2024
Anti-Aircraft System Name Quantity Origin Image Reference Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70 Unknown Ethnic armed group claims capture of key western Myanmar border.The Last Battle of Maungdaw | Arakan Army Controls the Bangladesh Border Now www.youtube.com
Armed conflict Early clashes (2015–2018)
In April 2015, the AA clashed with the Myanmar Army in Kyauktaw Township of Rakhine State and Paletwa Township of Chin State.
On 14 July 2015, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) rescued two Myanmar soldiers who had been captured by the Arakan Army.
On 25 August 2015, a BGB patrol seized ten horses from members of the Arakan Army, who were using the animals to transport supplies. Later that day, at 09:30 am local time, the Arakan Army fired on a ten-member BGB team patrolling in the Baramadak area near the Sangu River and the village of Boro Modok in Thanchi, Bangladesh. The exchange of gunfire lasted five hours. Nayek Jakir Hossain of the Barakadam BOP was wounded during the gunfight. He was rescued from the area and was sent to the Combined Military Hospital in Chittagong via helicopter. The Arakan Army lost two horses during the skirmish. According to locals sources, eight to twenty Arakan Army members were wounded. The BGB declared a state of emergency at the Bangladesh–Myanmar border in response to the incident and sent one BGB unit, two Bangladesh Army units, and one F-7 of the Bangladesh Air Force as reinforcements to the area to conduct a coordinated operation against the Arakan Army. Upon request from the Bangladeshi government, the Myanmar government sealed off their side of the border. Bangladeshi forces later arrested a Burmese citizen and accomplice of the Arakan Army, Ong Owong Rakhain, in Rajasthali Upazila. He had Arakan Army uniforms, laptops, digital cameras, motorcycles and two horses in his possession. Two more people were arrested in the following days.
In December 2015, the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army engaged in several days of fighting around north of Sittwe at the border between Kyauktaw and Mrauk U townships. An unknown number of military personnel were killed in the fighting. Several Tatmadaw personnel, including one commanding officer, were killed in sniper attacks. Many others were injured.
Following clashes between Rohingya insurgents and Burmese security forces in northern Rakhine State in October 2016, the Arakan Army released a press statement calling the perpetrators (the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) "savage Bengali Muslim terrorists" and the violence a "rampage of the Bengali Islamic fundamentalist militants in northern Arakan."