New Delhi: The COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the globe claiming lives does not appear to have had any impact on the ethnic conflict in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state which continues unabated, displacing thousands of people and causing civilian casualties.

Recently in Minbya township in the war-torn state a child was killed and 15 civilians were injured, according to reports.

From March 23 to 27, more than 4,000 additional people were displaced in Kyauktaw township due to the conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army. That doubled the number of people displaced in the township, according to the United Nations.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on March 31 that more than 70,000 people had been displaced at 154 sites in Rakhine and Chin state over a 12-month period.

The Rakhine conflict has killed at least 90 civilians and displaced thousands more since it began in December 2018.

The Arakan Army is a largely Buddhist militia fighting for greater autonomy for indigenous ethnic Rakhine in the state. The guerrilla outfit was formed in 2009 to protect ethnic Rakhine, and is estimated to have several thousand well-equipped soldiers. It is a relatively new fighting force in Myanmar’s forgotten conflict, and has been going from strength to strength in recent years.

Rakhine also has a separate conflict that has seen more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims flee to neighboring Bangladesh since August 2017 due to military offensives.

On March 23, the government formally branded the Arakan Army a terrorist group, saying it has incited fear and disrupted stability by attacking government and civilian targets.

In an appeal on March 23, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged warring parties across the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against Covid-19: the common enemy that is now threatening all mankind.

“The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war,” Guterres said, calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. “It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.”

Pope Francis has joined the UN chief’s call for a global ceasefire as the world faces the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“May our joint fight against the pandemic bring everyone to recognise the great need to reinforce brotherly and sisterly bonds as members of one human family,” said the pope.

Bishop Alexander Pyone Cho of Pyay Diocese, which covers Rakhine state, said it is time to end fighting as the world grapples with Coronavirus.

“It’s a worrying situation as civilians bear the brunt of the conflict as fighting still rages,” Bishop Pyone Cho told UCA News, adding that another challenge is that people in conflict-torn regions lack awareness of Covid-19.

Myanmar has 20 confirmed Covid-19 cases including one death, according to Johns Hopkins University data on April 2.

Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon said that more than anything, all powers can learn to acknowledge the presence of a power that is above all.

Myanmar’s government has blocked the internet for more than one million people in Rakhine and neighboring Chin state. It first restricted access in eight townships in Rakhine and one in Chin state last June. It lifted restrictions in five townships in Rakhine and Chin states last September but reinstated them on February 3.

The conflict impedes humanitarian responses and prevents assistance to “women, children, disabled, marginalised and displaced who are already the most vulnerable groups during a conflict,” the ambassadors of the US, Britain and the European Union said in a statement issued on April 1.