Narinjara News, 17 May, 2025  

The Arakan Army (AA) is said to have freed 225 captives and their families while the military council persists in bombing Rakhine, resulting in the deaths of numerous civilians.

The 225 are relatives of POWs who were captured in the Minbya conflict and were freed on May 16, 2025.

U Myat Htun, the director of Rakhine Human Rights Defenders and Promoters, stated, "The 225 individuals were set free yesterday in accordance with Geneva convention. The military council of terrorists has killed over 20 civilians in Rakhine within three days due to air strikes. The current release of prisoners of war is a remarkably generous gesture by AA. We welcome it."

Captives and families 

They were freed yesterday afternoon with a ceremony, and Arakan Army representatives offered them words of encouragement and transported them to locations in Minbya Township that the prisoners of war wished to go, a source close to the (ULA/AA) informed Narinjara.

"They were let go around noon yesterday. They are relatives and prisoners of war. They were transported in cars to return to their residences from which they had been freed."

On the eve of Thingyan, coinciding with the joyous New Year celebration in the Myanmar calendar on April 13, the AA freed 170 prisoners of war and their families who had been taken during the conflict at Minbya.

The Arakan Army (AA) is properly looking after the captives and their families taken during the conflict in Rakhine, releasing prisoners of war and their families individually when it is safe for them to do so.