Blackouts and blockades: Lashio trapped between the junta and MNDAA

Eight months after junta troops swept back into Lashio, the city’s surface has begun to resemble normalcy: schools have reopened, outpatient wards are running again, and markets are filling up. But the appearance of calm is deceptive.The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)—The Kokang army—still holds the city’s lifelines, from key roads to much of the electricity supply, leaving Lashio suspended between military rule and resistance control. Set along the Mandalay–Muse corridor, northern Shan State’s largest city remains one of Myanmar’s most important trade hubs and a critical waypoint to the Chinese border just 100 miles away. Its strategic value is long-standing.During World War II it served as a forward station for Chinese, Japanese and Allied forces, and by the 1970s it became the base of the Northeastern Command, charged with containing a resurgent Communist Party of Burma along the frontier. It also served as the endpoint of Myanmar’s railway network and stands as a strategic hub for China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Today, Lashio remains one of the most strategically important cities in northern Myanmar—a logistics and intelligence hub for military operations across Shan State, and a critical gateway for commerce moving toward the Chinese border. Control of Lashio effectively shapes access to northern Shan’s highways, illicit-economy corridors, and cross-border trade flows, making the city a prized stronghold for both the junta and ethnic armed groups vying for influence in the region.On June 25, 2024, during the second phase of Operation 1027, a large-scale anti-junta campaign, the MNDAA and its allies launched an offensive against the city. Then on August 3, after more than a month of fighting, the anti-junta forces seized the junta’s Northeastern Command, marking the first regional command the junta lost during Operation 1027.Following its defeat, the junta temporarily re-established its Northeastern Command in Mongyai, a town lying just west of Tangyan in the Wa Self-Administered Division. In April, under Chinese pressure, the MNDAA transferred control of 12 urban wards in Lashio to the junta, while retaining authority over the remaining 75 village tracts, including the Lashio bypass road. A wide view of Lashio in early 2025, where daily life has resumed despite lingering insecurity and competing military and ethnic armed group control over key infrastructure. (Photo: Myanmar Now) Currently, the urban areas of Lashio are under junta administration, while the villages near the city’s exits, along with some villages in Hsipaw and Mongyai townships, remain under the control of the resistance and the MNDAA. This poses a problem for the junta — leaving little room for the military to flow goods and resources in and out of the town, and effectively surrounded by enemies on all sides. In response to this strategic challenge, the junta has called on the MNDAA to withdraw from the Mongyai–Hsipaw and Mongyai–Lashio roads to restore access to the town. But sources close to the MNDAA say their leaders have refused.Though the outcome of the talks remains unclear, the MNDAA has tightened its grip along the Mongyai–Lashio Road, blocking junta movements and heightening local fears that clashes could erupt again.“The Kokang army has gone back and forth on whether to withdraw, while simultaneously blocking roads in Mongyai and Hsipaw,” a 50-year-old male resident of Lashio told Myanmar Now. “This leaves Lashio trapped in the middle with no escape if fighting erupts.” Blocked roads, blackouts, and failing servicesBefore the intense fighting of 2024, Lashio’s urban population was estimated around 131,000. But more recent estimates in 2024 suggest the broader Lashio township—which includes peri-urban and rural areas—has a population of roughly 323,700. Lashio traders say the junta has repeatedly opened and shut the Nam Lan and Kyauk Gu stretches of the north–south highway, citing crackdowns on illegal trade. The stop-start closures have stranded travelers and disrupted routine commerce, while restrictions on the still-open Lashio–Mongyai Road continue to throttle the flow of goods that residents depend on. “Ten different departmental groups are stationed along the A-T Bridge, preventing Chinese goods from Muse from entering the city,” a Lashio resident told Myanmar Now. “Consequently, the goods are piling up outside, making Mae Han and Ho Peik villages much busier.” At the same time, residents report that, despite nearly eight months since the junta troops re-entered the city, the electricity supply has yet to return to normal. “Electricity comes irregularly, not even for two hours every four days, so we have to rely on generators,” the Lashio resident said. Several power substations feeding Lashio sit inside Kokang and Ta’ang-held territory, and sources say electricity restoration has become a regular item in monthly meetings between Kokang commanders and junta officials. The Two Elephants Hotel in Lashio, long used as a discreet venue for regular negotiations between junta officials and MNDAA representatives over security, electricity, and transport issues. (Photo: Myanmar Now) Strained hospitals, rising crimeSince the junta’s return, Lashio General Hospital and various military and private clinics havereopened, but residents report that the city’s main 500-bed hospital still suffers from severe shortages of staff and medicine. The lack of medical equipment and medicine is reportedly a result of transport difficulties.“Some doctors have yet to return to the general hospital, and others split their time with private clinics,” says a woman who recently experienced these issues at the town's main hospital. “Medicine that is unavailable must be purchased elsewhere.”Yet some parts of public life are beginning to reopen.Basic schools in Lashio’s urban wards are opening their doors, and MNDAA-run schools continue to operate in areas outside the city. The junta reopened Lashio University on November 24, and residents say the military is preparing to reopen the city’s education degree college. Residents also report that Lashio’s University of Computer Studies and Technological University—both located in Kokang-controlled Mae Han and Ho Peik villages—remain shut, even as junta troops have returned to the city.But these benefits are overshadowed by spiking levels of crime. Many have recently reported a worrying increase in drug use, theft, and other crimes, adding to a sense of insecurity across Lashio. “During the Kokang administration, numerous arrests helped keep crime under control,” another resident of Lashio told Myanmar Now. “But now, drug abuse is increasing in many wards, and belongings are frequently disappearing.”Residents say more than half of those displaced have returned in the absence of airstrikes, even as trade remains far from normal. “People fled during the clashes and have returned after exhausting their funds,” a vendor at a large market in Lashio said. “With the economy struggling and business slow, spending is low, and trade is not as active as it used to be.” According to residents, only the Myanma Economic Bank has reopened, with all private banks still closed. Many returning residents are selling their homes and shops at affordable prices due to failing business, while some have moved away to cities like Yangon, Mandalay, and Taunggyi.Despite failing services and a struggling economy, some residents say they are at least relieved that shelling and airstrikes have stopped—a memory that still triggers fear. Within a month of heavy fighting between the MNDAA and the junta, more than 130 civilians were killed and nearly 200 injured, according to resistance statements. Residents say that during the MNDAA’s eight months in control of Lashio, the junta launched over 30 airstrikes, killing about 10 people—including a political prisoner and two inmates—and injuring nearly 100 others. The bombardment left more than 100 homes, hotels, religious buildings, schools, government offices, and major markets destroyed. Although tensions persist, the current relative calm suggests that negotiations between the two sides may be creating space for limited progress. Yet residents and analysts alike caution that any stability remains fragile. Without a durable agreement or meaningful concessions, there is little guarantee that this uneasy arrangement will hold. A section of Hseni Road in northern Shan State, incorporated into China’s Belt and Road/Silk Road economic corridor, where shifting military control continues to shape trade and infrastructure access. (Photo: Myanmar Now)

Blackouts and blockades: Lashio trapped between the junta and MNDAA

Residents returned after the airstrikes stopped, but they now face unreliable power, shuttered roads, rising crime and a junta administration struggling to make the city work

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