MNDAA conscripting men in Lashio Township villages

The Kokang armed group Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) has been enforcing a mandatory military service requirement for one member of each household in Lashio Township outside urban wards, residents of the city said. The group still exercises de facto authority over most of the township but has returned control of Lashio Township’s urban centre to the Myanmar military in accordance with a ceasefire agreement brokered by the Chinese government. Village administrators in Lashio Township have reportedly received orders from the MNDAA to identify one male between 18 and 40 in each household to enlist in the armed group’s ranks, according to a Lashio resident. “They made the same demand in Hseni [Hsenwi] before, and now it’s happening in Lashio,” the resident said. “The order was even broadcast over loudspeakers: one man per household is required to show up.” Sources connected with the MNDAA clarified that new conscripts would undergo between six weeks and three months of military training before being deployed to territories under MNDAA control. The General Administration Department, operating with the junta’s home affairs ministry, estimated Lashio’s urban population at 140,000 in March 2023, with around 150,000 living in Lashio Township’s rural villages. Myanmar’s civilians are already subject to conscription by the military regime throughout the country, and the imposition of conscription in the MNDAA’s territory has come as a blow, said another resident of Lashio in his 50s. “The Myanmar army has been forcibly recruiting people under the conscription law. We stayed here believing this was resistance-held territory and safe for our children,” he said. “Now they’re making the same demands, and I don’t know where to send my kids. They’re my children—I’m naturally very worried about them.” The MNDAA, commonly called the Kokang army, began imposing mandatory service in Hseni, another northern Shan State town under its control, in early June. The Kokang army has held control of Hseni since capturing the town in January 2024 and later incorporating it into Kokang Special Region 1, a territory the group has designated for self-government by the Kokang Chinese ethnic community in northern Shan State. Since the MNDAA relinquished control of Lashio to the junta under Chinese pressure, rumours have circulated that the MNDAA plans to withdraw its forces from Hseni and other parts of northern Shan State. However, residents have said they have seen no sign of plans to withdraw. One resident of Hseni said that in villages and wards lacking enough potential recruits of eligible age, the MNDAA is demanding that residents raise funds to hire substitutes. Myanmar Now contacted MNDAA information officers regarding the recruitment demands in Lashio but has yet to receive a response. The military regime has deployed more troops to Lashio as reinforcements since the transfer of control from the MNDAA, with residents claiming that a convoy of close to 50 military vehicles including tanks arrived on June 21, carrying around 1,000 soldiers. MNDAA-connected sources claim the negotiations with the junta ended before the plans for sending reinforcements became clear. Myanmar Now’s investigations found that MNDAA leaders met with senior junta officials to renegotiate conditions on troop deployments to Lashio Township’s Ho Peik village. “A junta logistics unit and Unit 68 are positioned at the AT Bridge near the Lashio exit,” a resident of the township said. “Since these locations are under Kokang army control, it seems the junta wants to reclaim them.” Having captured Lashio—the largest city in northern Shan State—in August 2024, the MNDAA controlled the town for eight months before returning control to the junta in April 2025, abiding by the Chinese-brokered ceasefire agreement. However, the MNDAA has designated rural areas of the township, outside of Lashio’s 12 urban wards, as part of the Hseni District of Kokang Special Region 1. Both the military regime and the powerful Rakhine armed group Arakan Army have also imposed mandatory service on men of eligible age in territories under their control, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army has mandated military service from all men of Ta’ang ethnicity.

MNDAA conscripting men in Lashio Township villages

In areas under its control in the township, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army has reportedly been pressing civilian villagers into joining its ranks

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