Forced conscription sweeps Shwebo as junta hunts recruits across Sagaing

Junta troops in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region have been rounding up young people for forced recruitment in Shwebo, on a near-daily basis this month, residents said. Sources in Shwebo, a city in Sagaing, say soldiers have been patrolling the town in both private and military vehicles, detaining young people on the streets and stopping travelers at military checkpoints. “At the checkpoints, they ask people’s ages, and if someone is between 18 and 30, they say ‘We are looking for people your age’ and then forcibly drag them into their vehicles,” a man from Shwebo told Myanmar Now.Junta vehicles have been stationed near monasteries and temples, where troops detain young men and extort payments from those outside the targeted age range, residents said. “Yesterday, a boy and a girl were riding on the road when soldiers stopped them, asked the boy’s age, and took him away, leaving the girl behind on the motorcycle,” another source said. “People are being taken every day, and the streets are now almost empty, with only the elderly venturing outside.”The arrests come amid a nationwide surge in forced conscription, which the regime has expanded as it struggles with heavy frontline losses. Rights groups and analysts say the draft has helped the military replenish depleted units, enabling it to retake pockets of territory over the past year even as resistance forces continue to hold large areas of the country.The junta has been forcibly recruiting men aged 18 to 35 under the compulsory conscription law and has now graduated its 16th batch of trainees, with roughly 5,000 recruits in each group. The junta has reportedly recruited close to 80,000 individuals within a year.Achieving this number relied heavily on pressure applied to departmental staff and officers, especially those in administration handling new recruits, after the forced conscription law was passed. Following the ceasefire in northern Shan, junta troops have reportedly deployed forcibly recruited individuals in counter-offensives across Kachin, Karen, and northern Chin states, as well as Mandalay, Sagaing, and Magway regions in central Myanmar.Myanmar military troops based in Shwebo have been advancing south along Mandalay Road since early October, burning villages along the way. In recent days, junta columns raided a resistance outpost near Bone Bweit village, capturing and killing seven resistance members.On November 12, a junta column of nearly 100 troops, including soldiers from Sagaing-based Brigade 33, was intercepted by resistance forces near the Kanbalu–Khin-U Township border. The ambush reportedly killed many soldiers and led to the capture of 15 junta troops, breaking the column’s formation and forcing it to retreat.

Forced conscription sweeps Shwebo as junta hunts recruits across Sagaing

Residents say soldiers are sweeping the city in private and military vehicles, detaining youth at checkpoints as the regime expands its draft to fill depleted frontline units

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