In this photo released by the Myanmar Army, a fire burns in the predominantly ethnic Rakhine village of Let Kar in Rakhine State’s Mrauk-U township, western Myanmar.
| Photo Credit: AP

“Myanmar ethnic armed groups seized a popular beach resort town in the west of the country and launched dawn attacks on junta positions in the north,” a military source and residents told AFP on June 25.

Fighting is raging across swathes of the Southeast Asian nation as ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy “People’s Defence Forces” battle the military, which seized power in a 2021 coup.

In western Rakhine state Arakan Army (AA) fighters have battled security forces for days around Ngapali beach, home to upmarket hotels and resorts owned by military-backed businesses.

“Junta troops and police had retreated to an airport in the town of Thandwe, around two kilometres (more than a mile) away,” a military source, speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP.

“Hundreds of kilometres away in northern Shan state, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) launched dawn attacks on the military in the town of Kyaukme,” residents said.

One resident of the town, which sits on a vital highway to China, said they had heard artillery and gunfire around the town since the morning. “Most people from the town are hiding inside their houses,” another Kyaukme resident who works for a volunteer rescue team told AFP.

“The TNLA had restricted travel around Kyaukme,” they said, requesting anonymity for security reasons. The AA and TNLA are members of the so-called “Three Brotherhood Alliance” that launched a surprise offensive against the junta last October across northern Shan state.

Their fighters seized swathes of territory and several lucrative trade crossings with China, dealing the junta its biggest blow since it seized power.

In January, China brokered a ceasefire that allowed the alliance to hold on to territory it had captured, but both sides have recently accused each other of breaking the truce.

‘Continuous shelling’

The town of Thandwe, a few kilometres from Rakhine’s Ngapali beach and home to the local airport, was largely deserted as of Monday, a resident who fled that day told AFP.

“Almost everyone in the town has fled… Very few people are now in Thandwe,” said the resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons. “A rocket shell landed in the town yesterday. We also heard continuous heavy artillery shelling.”

A local hotel owner who was no longer in the town told AFP his staff said the military had carried out air strikes near the airport on June 24. His employees told him there were “some army and police trapped inside the airport building.”

AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment and has contacted an AA spokesman. Thandwe airport has been closed since early this month as AA fighters launched attacks in the area.

Since launching its own offensive in Rakhine state in November, the AA has seized territory along the border with India and Bangladesh. State capital Sittwe is one of the few holdouts for junta troops in Rakhine.

The AA, which says it is fighting for autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine population, has vowed to capture the city, home to an India-backed deep sea port and around 2,00,000 people.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to a plethora of ethnic armed groups, many of whom have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

People rebuilding temporary homes near a destroyed building following fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army.
| Photo Credit: AFP

An alliance of Myanmar ethnic armed groups have accused the junta of repeatedly violating a China-brokered ceasefire in the north of the country this month and causing civilian casualties.

Beijing brokered a truce between the junta and the so-called “Three Brotherhood Alliance” in January after months of fighting that displaced more than half a million people near China’s southern border.

The ceasefire allowed the alliance— made up of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the Arakan Army (AA) to hold swathes of territory it had seized in northern Shan state.

Junta troops on June 19 launched an air strike on territory the TNLA holds near the ruby and gem-mining hub of Mogok, the group said.

“In this incident, one civilian was killed and 3 wounded including a 10-year-old child,” the TNLA said in a statement posted to the alliance’s Telegram channel on June 19.

On June 18 junta troops had launched a drone attack that had killed one TNLA member and seriously wounded four others, the TNLA added.

It said the attacks were the latest violation this month by the junta, which it said had shelled TNLA positions and cut roads and restricted the flow of goods to TNLA-controlled towns.

AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment.

In October last year, the alliance launched a surprise offensive across northern Myanmar, seizing several towns and lucrative border hubs that are vital for trade with China, dealing a blow to the cash-strapped and isolated junta.

Border trade with China during April-May was down by almost a third compared to the same period last year, junta-controlled media reported last week.

Last month China hosted follow-up peace talks between the military and the alliance in the city of Kunming.

A source close to the MNDAA told AFP that no substantial progress had been made, and the two sides would meet again in the future.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to a plethora of ethnic armed groups, many of whom have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

While fighting in Shan state has calmed, the AA has launched its own offensive in western Rakhine state, where it says it is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population.

Its fighters have seized territory along the border with India and Bangladesh, piling further pressure on the junta as it battles opponents elsewhere across the Southeast Asian country.

This handout photo taken and released on October 27, 2023, by the Kokang Information Network shows Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army Major General Peng Deqi (centre right) commanding operations against Myanmar’s military near Lashio township in Myanmar’s northern Shan State.
| Photo Credit: AFP

An alliance of ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar launched coordinated attacks on the military across the country’s north on Friday, posing a fresh challenge to the junta as it struggles to quell resistance to its rule.

The military’s 2021 putsch sparked renewed fighting with powerful ethnic rebel groups in northern Shan state, home to a planned billion-dollar rail link, part of China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure project.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched a “military operation”, they said in a statement.

Pro-military Telegram channels said the rebels were attacking 12 towns or settlements across a swathe of Shan state around 100 kilometres (62 miles) across.

The three rebel groups — which analysts say can call on at least 15,000 fighters between them — did not immediately provide details on casualties or whether they had taken territory.

A junta spokesman did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

The MNDAA said its fighters had closed the roads from the trade hub of Lashio to Chinshwehaw and Muse on the China border ahead of a “major offensive”.

Footage shared on its media channel showed fighters in what appeared to be an abandoned camp, with weapons and boxes of ammunition scattered across the ground. It did not say where the footage was taken.

Fighting around Lashio — home to the military’s northeast command — and near the towns of Muse, Chinshwehaw and Laukkai was ongoing, local media and residents said.

Laukkai is about five kilometres from the border with China.

“All shops are closed and no one is going out,” a resident of Hopang township, around 10 kilometres from Chinshwehaw, told AFP.

“We can hear the sounds of aircraft and gunfire constantly,” they said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

A Muse resident told AFP that locals were staying indoors as soldiers patrolled the streets and that the road from the town to the city of Mandalay — a major trade route — had been closed.

A rescue worker in Lashio who requested anonymity for safety reasons told AFP that rebels had begun shelling the military base near the town from 4:00 am (2130 GMT Thursday) and that the military had responded with artillery fire.

All flights to and from Lashio airport had been cancelled on Friday “because of the situation”, an airline ticketing agency told AFP.

China’s foreign affairs ministry said it was “closely following” the fighting and called on all sides to prevent the situation from escalating.

In 2017, months of fighting between Myanmar’s army and ethnic insurgents in the Kokang border region claimed dozens of lives and sent thousands fleeing from their homes — many to China.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups, some of which have fought the military for decades over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Some have trained and equipped newer “People’s Defence Forces” that have sprung up since the 2021 coup and the military’s bloody crackdown on dissent.

Earlier this month nearly 30 people were killed and dozens wounded in a strike on a camp for displaced people in neighbouring Kachin state.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic rebel group that controls the area, blamed the junta for the attack.

Last week the junta ordered air strikes and troop reinforcements as it tried to recover outposts it had lost in subsequent fighting with the KIA, the military and rebels said.

A KIA spokesman told AFP he was not sure if its fighters had joined Friday’s attacks.