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Sittwe (, ), formerly Akyab (), is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Sittwe is located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan River, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers emptying into the Bay of Bengal. As of 2019 the city has an estimated population of over 120,000 inhabitants. It is the administrative seat of Sittwe Township and Sittwe District.
The colonial name Akyab (အာကျပ်) derived from the town's hill Akyatkundaw or A-khyat-dau-kun (ကုန်း), named for one of its four whose own name Ankyeit, Akyattaw, Akyatdaw or Ahkyaib-daw ("Royal Rear-Jaw Pagoda") referenced its supposed possession of a Buddhist relic, a rear section of Siddhartha Gautama's jawbone.
Saittwe or Sittwe was only a small fishing village at the time of the British Empire conquest of Burma, but its four poorly maintained stupas Akyattaw, Thingyittawdhāt, Letyatalundaw, and Letwetalundaw were later claimed to date to the 16th century and to hold various relics of the Buddha: part of his rear jawbone, his thigh, his right shinbone, and his left shinbone respectively.
The local defenses were stormed by the British under Gen. Morrison in 1825 during the First Anglo-Burmese War. Despite Morrison and many of his men succumbing to malaria, cholera, and other tropical diseases to the point the entire settlement was abandoned for a time, the port was chosen to serve as Arakan's seat of government in 1826 largely because Mrauk U was considered even more unhealthy. It was renamed Akyab after the town's hill and its eponymous Burmese pagoda. The bell of the pagoda at the Mahamuni Buddha Temple south of Mandalay was removed to the basement of the Akyab courthouse until 1867.
Under British occupation, the town grew into an important maritime base, particularly for the export of the area's rice. Despite its bad reputation for disease, historical records indicate Akyab was no more dangerous to its European colonizers than other locations along the India coast. Its population increased to 15,536 inhabitants , 33,200 , and 31,687 by 1901, when it was the third largest port city in British Burma. In the 1860s, the Consulate General of the United States (Kolkata) had a consular agency in Akyab. The four stupas along the ridge overlooking the town were rebuilt in the late 19th century very plainly and unattractively.
During World War II, Sittwe was an important site of many battles during the Burma Campaign due to its possession of both an airfield and a deepwater port.
Sittwe is the birthplace of political monks in Myanmar. It was the birthplace of U Ottama, the first monk who protested against the colonial British in Myanmar. Also, in the recent 2007 protest marches, known as the Saffron Revolution, it was the monks in Sittwe who started the protest against the military government in Myanmar. Sittwe houses the Dhanyawadi Naval Base, named after the ancient Rakhine city-state of Dhanyawadi.
Since 2012, the Myanmar government has held tens of thousands of in camps at Sittwe. There are now some 140,000 Rohingyas living in poor condition huts with limited electricity and food. Rohingya refugees can not go out or move around and also not allowed to work outside of camp. The beach at Ohn Daw Gyi became the main departure point.
In early 2024, as a result of the Myanmar Civil War, Sittwe was surrounded by Arakan Army forces, which gained control of most of Rakhine State. Sittwe and a number of other cities are the only remaining areas in the state still controlled by the ruling military junta. A mass population exodus has been reported, with the only remaining avenue of escape being the airport. As of December 2024, Sittwe remains only one of three major towns in Rakhine state under junta control, along with Kyaukphyu and Manaung.
As of 2019, the General Administration Department reported 170,355 "Bangladeshi foreigners" living in Sittwe' metro area- Sittwe Township and only 144,773 Rakhine residents in the township. Accordingly, 53.4% of the overall township adheres to Islam. There are no comparable statistics for just the city of Sittwe as the township's population nearly doubled between 2018 and 2019.
The vast majority practises Theravada and Islam. The Rohingya Muslim quarter used to be called Aung Mingala, until the Muslims were driven out by mobs during the 2012 riots in October. It is difficult to document the number of Rohingya who remain in the Internally Displaced Persons camps as the so-called "illegal people" were not permitted to register for the national census and the government refuses to address this minority Rohingya ethnic group by name.
Human Rights Watch, Fortify Rights, Amnesty International and the UN Special Rapporteur have documented the spread of orchestrated anti-Muslim violence with the permission (and sometimes the direct involvement of) government and military authorities.
In October 2011, as part of a recent bilateral trade deal signed by Myanmar and India, the two countries pledged a US$120 million port and multimodal investment to complete the infrastructure linking Indian north-eastern provinces to Sittwe overland via India's Mizoram by 2013.
The port of Sittwe will undergo extensive dredging and the construction of new berthing terminals. Once operational it will offer direct passage to enable Burmese and Indian shippers to pick up mainline services to and from Kolkata. The two countries also pledged to double bilateral trade to US$3 billion by 2015 by reducing trade tariffs.
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