Fighters of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and allied organisations captured a strategically important army base in Tanai Township northwest of the Kachin State capital on Thursday morning.
Taking over the base—called Nam Byu—has given the KIA effective control over the area’s amber and gold deposits.
“There are gold and amber mines in Nam Byu and Nam Hkam Par, so it’s a base of great economic importance. It’s also important for exercising effective control over the KIA’s Battalion 14 territory,” said KIA spokesperson Col. Naw Bu.
The Nam Byu base is 12 miles southwest of the town of Tanai, and some 75 miles northwest of the Kachin State capital, Myitkyina. Junta forces took control of it in 2018 and began collecting taxes from gold and amber mining companies that had come to the area seeking business.
Some 70 army troops. . .
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