Anti-junta forces take control of southern Chin State’s Mindat town

Anti-regime forces took control of the southern Chin State town of Mindat this week after a month-long battle with Myanmar’s military, according to sources close to the coalition of ethnic Chin resistance groups that carried out the offensive. The alliance, known as the Chin Brothers, reportedly overwhelmed at least 10 junta outposts, including a police station, to capture the town. Starting in early November, the offensive was led by the Chinland Defense Force-Mindat (CDF-Mindat), sources affiliated with the group said. “The town is under CDF-Mindat’s control, but there’s one enemy base near the town where fighting is still taking place,” a source close to CDF-Mindat told Myanmar Now. There has been no official statement from the group regarding the seizure of the town, which comes just months after the Chin Brothers seized outposts in neighbouring Matupi Township in late June. Under military rule, Mindat has become a ghost town, with approximately 90 percent of its residents fleeing when the junta imposed martial law in May, 2021. Although some residents returned after fighting intermittently eased, the town has remained largely abandoned. Despite resistance groups now having full control of Mindat, clashes are continuing near the military’s Infantry Battalion 274 base, less than two miles west of the town. The base is the junta’s last stronghold in the township. In response to the offensive, the military regime carried out airstrikes on urban areas on Thursday morning, a local resident told Myanmar Now. “They resumed aerial bombing over the town just a week after the previous attacks. They also launched multiple missile attacks from a junta base in Kyaukhtu,” he said, referring to a town on the border with neighbouring Magway Region. The military regime also dropped food supplies and ammunition to the junta soldiers held up in the base this week, local sources said. In the eastern and western parts of Mindat, at least 200 homes have been damaged by junta arson attacks, shelling, and airstrikes. In late April, the alliance also captured Kyindwe, a strategically important town in Kanpetlet Township. The Chin National Army, the oldest ethnic Chin armed group fighting the regime, has seized a number of towns across Chin State since 2023, including Rikhawdar, Lailenpi, Rezua, and Tonzang.

Anti-junta forces take control of southern Chin State’s Mindat town

During the offensive, hundreds of homes were destroyed by junta shelling, arson, and airstrikes

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