With nearly four years having passed since the coup, Myanmar’s military regime has entirely lost control of half of the ten townships of Chin State in the country’s northwest.
A grouping of ethnic armed organisations called the Chin Brotherhood (or Chin Brothers) alliance has taken over the towns of Mindat, Kanpetlet, and Matupi on the southern side of the state while their powerful ally, the Arakan Army (AA), controls the neighbouring Paletwa Township.
Tonzang Township in the state’s north is under the control of the Chinland Council, a deliberative body led by the long-established Chin National Front/Chin National Army (CNF/A) with representatives from other Chin anti-junta forces.
Salai Yaw Mang, spokesperson for the Chin Brotherhood, confirmed in a press conference held on January 3 that most areas of the state are now under the control of anti-junta forces.
While the army still has troops stationed in urban areas such as Hakha, the state capital, and the surrounding towns of Thantlang, Falam, and Tedim, anti-junta forces dominate in rural villages throughout the state.
“Around 80 to 85 percent of Chin State has been fully liberated,” Salai Yaw Mang said.
The position attained by the anti-junta forces is largely the result of offensive operations in late 2024, including simultaneous attacks by the Chin Brotherhood alliance on the towns of Falam and Mindat on November 10.
The alliance, which emerged after the military coup of 2021, includes the Chin National Organisation (CNO), the Chin National Council (Mindat), the Maraland Territorial Council (MTC), the Chinland Defence Force (Kanpetlet), and Brigade 1 of the Chinland Defence Force (Matupi).
A few months after the coup, young people in Mindat organised armed groups to resist the military armed with homemade hunting rifles. They specialised in mounting ambushes to intercept junta vehicles carrying reinforcements to the battle lines in Chin State.
The offensives launched by the fighters in November resulted in the complete takeover of Mindat in the third week of December. They then captured the nearby town of Kanpetlet, forcing junta troops to withdraw completely from Chin State to the Yaw area of Magway Region.
Battle for Falam
The Chin Brotherhood alliance has also been fighting to capture the town of Falam some 20 miles northeast of Hakha.
Anti-junta forces in the area claim to have already captured most of Falam’s urban wards.
They successfully captured several key junta positions in the first few days of fighting, including the general administration office working under the junta’s home affairs ministry, a police station, and a construction office, as well as taking more than 40 prisoners of war into custody.
As junta troops struggled to hold Falam, the air force conducted bombing raids. Junta planes also flew in more than 100 reinforcements, which the anti-junta forces promptly intercepted.
According to Salai Timmy—a spokesperson for the Chin National Defense Force, the armed wing of the Chin Brotherhood alliance member CNO—the anti-junta fighters are now launching assaults on the last remaining battalion base in the township..
“We now control everything except the hilltop base,” Salai Timmy said.
The Surbung Airport some 10 miles west of the town has been under the control of the anti-junta forces since last year.
The first airport in Chin State, it was built during the tenure of the elected civilian government of the National League for Democracy. The airport’s opening ceremony, originally scheduled for February 20, 2021, was cancelled because of the military coup.
Fighting in the capital and Thantlang
In Hakha Township, the location of one of the military’s 23 Tactical Operations Command centres throughout Myanmar, the military has maintained control only in the urban centre while Chin anti-junta forces control outlying areas through ambushes on the roads.
In July 2024, a coalition of Chin forces attacked the Myoma Police Station in Hakha and liberated more than 50 political prisoners, including members of the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement.
In early December, Chin forces attacked junta camps on the road connecting Hakha and Thantlang, effectively taking control of the route.
The Myanmar army has occupied homes in Thantlang, a town severely damaged by years of war, after most of its civilian inhabitants fled. The junta recently deployed more than 100 armed personnel to Thantlang Township as reinforcements.
Little news from Thantlang reaches the media, even locally. However, Salai Paul, a spokesperson for the resistance governing body Chinland Council, confirmed that fighting is ongoing in Thantlang.
“There have been frequent clashes recently, but we’re still in the phase of scouting junta positions. We are not yet in a position to capture them,” he explained.
Thantlang, which is 4,000 above sea level, is the nearest town to the headquarters of the Chin National Front at Camp Victoria on the India-Myanmar border. The town is also of vital strategic importance to the military regime’s continued control of Chin State.
“The military council is fiercely guarding Thantlang, a town already heavily damaged, because, in my view, it is vital for military strategy to keep Thantlang under their control, ensuring that Hakha and the rest of Chin State stay within their grasp,” he said.
There has been little fighting in Tedim, a northern township, since clashes broke out there in July of last year. However, junta forces are effectively surrounded at a single hilltop base in the township and are unable to leave, according to spokespersons for the Chin Brotherhood member group PDF Zoland.
The Myoma Police Station in Kanpetlet on December 22, 2024 after its capture by the Chin Brotherhood forces
Liberation in 2025?
Analysts have warned that the Myanmar military’s loss of all four townships on Chin State’s southern boundary—Paletwa, Matupi, Mindat, and Kanpetlet—is likely to lead to escalating battles in Magway Region, which shares Chin State’s eastern border.
Captain Zin Yaw, an officer who defected from the Myanmar military, predicted that anti-junta forces would soon advance from Chin State towards junta bases in Magway Region’s Ngape Township.
The Chin Brotherhood’s ally the AA is already threatening the area after capturing the military’s Western Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters in Ann, Rakhine State, which is located on a direct route into Padan, Ngape Township.
“We can now see a situation where they could penetrate into Padan through the triangular area between the Chin Hills and Rakhine State,” he said. “I believe we will soon witness a phase where the resistance will infiltrate covertly and set up camps, rather than making gradual advances in a series of attacks. I expect this to happen in 2025.”
Out of 25 junta armaments factories in Myanmar, 15 are located in Magway Region, making it a key area for the junta army to maintain a steady supply of firearms and ammunition to its bases nationwide.
The junta relies on Magway Region—where 15 of the military’s 25 armaments factories in Myanmar are located—as a hub for supplying ammunition, firearms, and ordnance to its bases throughout the country.
Salai Paul has said that the campaign to free Chin State from the military council has been successful and will win more victories in the coming year.
In remarks given at a December 30 ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Chin Brotherhood’s formation, acting president of the publicly mandated National Unity Government Duwa Lashi La praised the Chin forces’ takeover of wide swathes of Myanmar’s northwest, attributing their triumphs to their effective tactics in the field.
The Chin armed groups will continue to fight alongside their allies in the ongoing struggle against the junta’s rule, said Thang Chawn Phe, the military chair of the Chin Brotherhood alliance.
The Chin resistance forces will continue to join forces with their allies in the ongoing fight, according to Thang Chawn Phe, Military Chairman of the Chin Brotherhood Alliance.
However, he emphasized that success in Chin State is not the only goal.
“The strength of the resistance in Chinland alone won’t be enough,” Thang Chawn Phe said to the press on January 3. “If we continue to fight independently, only when we wish, and fail to coordinate with other resistance groups across the country, achieving national liberation will remain a long way off.”
He continued: “We will not be satisfied with the liberation of our region alone. We will cooperate with other organisations and actively contribute to the liberation of the entire country, fighting alongside the resistance forces.”
