Driver killed in attack on UN vehicle in Myanmar’s Rakhine

YANGON: A Myanmar government health worker was injured and his driver killed when their United Nations-marked vehicle was ambushed as they were carrying COVID-19 test samples in conflict-ridden Rakhine state, the UN said Tuesday. The country´s northwest has been embroiled in an increasingly brutal civil war between Myanmar´s military and Arakan Army rebels demanding more autonomy for the state´s ethnic Rakhine population. The area has endured a strict lockdown for months, making independent reporting difficult. Both the military and insurgents blamed each other for the attack, which happened early Monday evening at a bridge near the town of Minbya. The pair had been in a UN vehicle carrying COVID-19 surveillance samples, the organisation said, adding it was “deeply saddened” to confirm the death of driver Pyae Sone Win Maung, who worked for the World Health Organization (WHO). The driver had earlier promised to ring his parents, said father Htay Win Maung. “He asked me not to call him when he was driving,” he told AFP by phone, saying he and his wife were heartbroken by the death of their 28-year-old son. “That was the last time we spoke.”

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted his condolences, adding it was “tragic to lose a life while keeping the world safe”. Military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told AFP that health worker Aung Myo Oo had been transferred to hospital in the Rakhine state capital, Sittwe. Scores have been killed, hundreds injured and tens of thousands displaced since fighting erupted at the beginning of last year, with both sides trading allegations of abuses committed.