Myanmar military troops have clashed with fighters from a major militant group in Rakhine state, breaking a ceasefire that kept the peace in the western region since the military takeover, a rebel spokesman said yesterday.

The Southeast Asian country has been in chaos since the February putsch, with a brutal crackdown on dissent and increased fighting in borderlands involving ethnic armed organisations.

Myanmar military troops have clashed with fighters from a major militant group in Rakhine state, breaking a ceasefire that kept the peace in the western region since the military takeover, a rebel spokesman said yesterday.

The Southeast Asian country has been in chaos since the February putsch, with a brutal crackdown on dissent and increased fighting in borderlands involving ethnic armed organisations.

"Around 11:00am yesterday, there was a clash for a few minutes in the north of Maungdaw," an AA spokesman told AFP.

"It was because the Myanmar military entered the area. Casualty details are not known yet."

Clashes between the AA and the military in 2019 displaced over 200,000 people across the state, one of Myanmar's poorest, reports AFP.

"I think it's getting a little testy, but so far may not escalate if the Tatmadaw don't have the troops / firepower to really take on the AA," said analyst David Mathieson, using another name for Myanmar's military.

The ruling military ended a 19-month internet shutdown in the state of around one million after the military takeover.

The regime has also announced that a member of a local Rakhine nationalist party will be joining its cabinet.

Rakhine state, home to both the Muslim and a largely Buddhist ethnic Rakhine majority, has been a tinderbox of conflict for decades.