4,000 displaced by battle for port site in Rakhine

Fierce fighting between Myanmar's military junta and ethnic minority rebels closing in on the planned site of a strategic China-backed port has displaced 4,000 people, a local aid worker said yesterday.

The Arakan Army (AA) is battling the military in western Rakhine state, where projects including oil pipelines, power plants and transport links are sprouting up with billions of dollars of Chinese funding. The region has emerged as a key front in Myanmar's civil war, pitching a myriad of rebels and pro-democracy fighters against the junta.