The Bangladesh–Myanmar border is the international border between the countries of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(formerly ''Burma''). The border stretches , from the

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

with

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

in the north, to the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...

in the south. About of the border is fenced, with the government of Myanmar announcing in 2017 that it was planning to fence off the rest of the border.

Description

The border starts in the north at the tripoint with

Mizoram Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo", the self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo language means "lan ...

, India. It then proceeds southwards overland, before turning west at a point west of

Paletwa Paletwa (, ) is one of the westernmost towns of Myanmar, in Chin State 18 kilometres from the border with Bangladesh. Its population in 2014 was about 97,000. Demographics Rakhine is the Lingua Franca of the region, while Kuki-Chin languages a ...

. The border then proceeds to the west, north-west and then south in a broad arc before reaching the

Naf River The Naf River ( bn, নাফ নদী ''Naf Nodi'' ; my, နတ်မြစ် ; rki, ) is an international river marking the border of southeastern Bangladesh and northwestern Myanmar. Geography The Naf River's average depth is , and ma ...

. The border then follows this wide river southwards out to the Bay of Bengal.

History

Historically the border region has been a contested area located at the edge of the various Indian and Burmese empires. Britain had begun conquering India (including modern Bangladesh) in the 17th century, and gradually took control of most of the country, forming

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. From the 1820s-80s Britain also gradually conquered

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

; by the

Treaty of Yandabo The Treaty of Yandabo ( my, ရန္တပိုစာချုပ် ) was the peace treaty that ended the First Anglo-Burmese War. The treaty was signed on 24February 1826, nearly two years after the war formally broke out on 5March 1824, by ...

in 1826 which ended the

First Anglo-Burmese War The First Anglo-Burmese War ( my, ပထမ အင်္ဂလိပ်-မြန်မာ စစ်; ; 5 March 1824 – 24 February 1826), also known as the First Burma War, was the first of three wars fought between the British and Burmes ...

Burma recognised British control over

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...

, Rakhine (

Arakan Arakan ( or ) is a historic coastal region in Southeast Asia. Its borders faced the Bay of Bengal to its west, the Indian subcontinent to its north and Burma proper to its east. The Arakan Mountains isolated the region and made it accessi ...

), and the

Taninthayi Tanintharyi or Taninthayi (widely known during the British occupation and since as Tenasserim) is a small town in Taninthayi Township, Myeik District, in the Tanintharyi Region of south-western Myanmar. It is the administrative seat for the tow ...

coast, thereby delimiting much of the Indo-Burmese modern boundary in general terms. Large swathes of Burma were annexed following the

Second Anglo-Burmese War The Second Anglo-Burmese War or the Second Burma War ( my, ဒုတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် မြန်မာ စစ် ; 5 April 185220 January 1853) was the second of the three wars fought between the Burmese Empire and British Em ...

of 1852–53. The remainder of Burma was conquered in 1885 and incorporated into British India. Further Indo-Burmese boundary modifications were made in 1894, 1896, 1901, 1921 and 1922. Bangladesh-Myanmar border 03

In 1937 Burma was split off from India and became a separate colony. In 1947 India gained independence, however the country was split into two states (India and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

), with the southernmost section of the Burma-India border becoming that between Burma and

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Myanmar, wit ...

(modern

). Burma gained independence in 1948. In 1971 Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan after a

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

and thereby inherited the border with Burma/Myanmar. Since then the boundary area has often been unstable owing to armed conflicts such as the

Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict The Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict was a political and armed conflict between the government of Bangladesh and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (United People's Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts) and its armed wing, the Shanti Bah ...

(1977-1997) in south-east Bangladesh and the

Rohingya conflict The Rohingya conflict is an ongoing conflict in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine State (formerly known as Arakan), characterised by sectarian violence between the Rohingya Muslim and Rakhine Buddhist communities, a military crackdown ...

in Myanmar's

Rakhine state Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region to the east, the Bay of Ben ...

. The latter has been ongoing for decades, yet has reached a particular intensity since 2016. The latest round of fighting has resulted in Rohingya refugees crossing the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh. Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to close their borders during sudden influxes of Rohingya refugees. On Myanmar's side of the border in

Maungdaw District Maungdaw District ( my, မောင်တောခရိုင်) is a district of Rakhine State in western Myanmar (Burma). Its capital city is Maungdaw and the population density is about 295 persons per square kilometer. Roughly 91 percent of ...

, 80 percent of the population is Rohingya. In 2014 members of the Myanmar Border Police opened fire on a

Border Guards Bangladesh Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) are a paramilitary force responsible for the border security of Bangladesh. The force is known as "The Vigilant Sentinels of the National Frontier". The BGB is entrusted with the responsibility to defend the borde ...

(BGB) patrol, killing one. In 2015 an armed clash occurred on the border between the Rohingya

Arakan Army The Arakan Army ( my, ရက္ခိုင့်တပ်တော်, Rakhaing Tattaw; abbreviated AA) is an ethnic armed organisation based in Rakhine State (Arakan). Founded on 10 April 2009, the AA is the military wing of the United Lea ...

and the BGB. There have also been a number of incidents down the years involving fishermen on the Naf river allegedly illegally crossing the boundary.

Border crossings

At present the border is closed to foreign nationals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bangladesh-Myanmar border Fences Border barriers Borders of Bangladesh Borders of Myanmar International borders

Description

History

Border crossings

See also

References