MNDAA captures military command centre outside Laukkai, taking full control of city

Junta troops stationed at a military command centre just outside of Laukkai surrendered en masse on Thursday, ending the regime’s bid to retain control of the city after more than a month of fighting. Sources in the area confirmed that the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) captured the Laukkai Regional Operations Command Centre late Thursday, giving it effective control of the entire city. “After negotiations, the junta troops agreed to surrender to the MNDAA, which took over the command centre last night,” a source who asked to remain anonymous told Myanmar Now on Friday. “I heard they will now be sent to either Lashio or Kengtung,” he added. According to local media reports and video that has been circulating online, the regime forces have already begun retreating to Lashio, where the headquarters of the junta’s Northeastern Regional Military Command is located. The MNDAA, an ethnic Kokang armed group, has been closing in on Laukkai since the end of November. Located near the Chinese border, the city serves as the administrative centre of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone (SAZ) and has long been notorious as a major crime hub ruled by allies of Myanmar’s military. As a member of the Brotherhood Alliance, which also includes the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, the MNDAA has been taking part in a major offensive for control of key towns in northern Shan State since late October. In mid-November, after suffering a string of defeats to the ethnic alliance—including the surrender of an entire infantry battalion near Laukkai—the Myanmar military attempted to consolidate its control over the Kokang SAZ by appointing a former regional commander, Brig-Gen Tun Tun Myint, to replace Myint Swe, its proxy civilian leader. That move did little, however, to prevent the MNDAA and its allies from making further advances as they continued to encircle Laukkai. The regime won a brief reprieve in mid-December with Chinese-mediated talks that focussed on the fate of Laukkai, but clashes soon resumed as the MNDAA captured more outposts and a border trade zone later in the month. Fighting continued to intensify through the closing weeks of the year, with the junta shelling parts of the city under MNDAA control even as its forces withdrew from other areas. In a New Year’s address published on Monday, MNDAA commander Peng Daxun said that group was still trying to capture the Laukkai Regional Operations Command Centre and a smaller outpost, but vowed to restore “tranquillity and development” in the Kokang region once the conflict was over. While it remains unclear how the regime will respond to its latest defeat, in the past it has used airstrikes and heavy artillery fire to retaliate against its opponents. However, this is less likely in the case of Laukkai, where the junta risks angering China, its most important international ally, if its actions are perceived as a threat to stability along the two countries’ shared border. Such concerns were heightened on Wednesday, when Chinese state media reported that stray artillery shells fired from the Myanmar side had injured five people in a Chinese border town near Laukkai.

MNDAA captures military command centre outside Laukkai, taking full control of city

Junta troops stationed at the Laukkai Regional Operations Command Centre surrendered en masse on Thursday and were later seen being transported to Lashio

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