Myanmar military fending off attacks on several fronts despite ceasefire with Brotherhood Alliance

Three months after the launch of the Brotherhood Alliance’s Operation 1027 anti-junta offensive, the Myanmar military continues to suffer defeats in clashes with other armed resistance forces and ethnic armed organisations. Since initiating Operation 1027 in late October, the tripartite Brotherhood Alliance—made up of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Arakan Army (AA)—has seized control of more than a dozen towns in Rakhine, Chin, and northern Shan states. Despite a Chinese-mediated ceasefire reached between the military and Brotherhood Alliance on January 11, clashes are still ongoing in northern Shan State with other anti-junta groups. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), joined by members of the Kachin People’s Defence Forces (PDF) and All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, captured the town of Mabein in northern Shan State’s Mongmit District on June 21, as well as overrunning multiple junta positions last week in Kachin State’s Mansi Township, which shares a border with Shan State. Mabein is located some 27 miles north of the town of Mongmit, northern Shan State. A KIA-led coalition of anti-junta forces has been engaged in a fierce battle with the military since January 18 for control of the town. Pro-junta propaganda channels on social media circulated claims on Sunday that the town was now under the control of junta troops, but Myanmar Now has been unable to verify these claims independently. Last Wednesday, the KIA took control of Nam Hpat Kar village tract in Kutkai Township, northern Shan State after leading its allies in defeating the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 123. A week earlier, KIA troops near Nam Hpat Kar had shot down a junta fighter plane and killed two airmen, according to KIA spokesperson Col. Naw Bu. In southern Shan State, the Pa-O National Liberation Army (PNLA) and an alliance of Karenni anti-junta forces occupied the town of Hsihseng last Thursday. The PNLA—a signatory of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement of 2015—had previously avoided clashes with the junta. However, fighting reportedly began after members of the junta’s sometime ally the Pa-O National Army (PNA) commandeered a PNLA weapons shipment near the village of Sanhpu in Hopong Township. In Rakhine State, the AA—a member of the Brotherhood Alliance—has been fighting against regime forces in six townships this month. The Brotherhood Alliance claimed on Sunday that AA forces had captured the junta’s LIB 380 base in Minbya Township in the northern part of the state. The Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) and allied resistance fighters took full control of the large village of Mawchee in Hpasawng Township, Karenni State on Friday after junta troops abandoned their bases in the area, the ethnic armed organisation claimed. “Around 60 junta troops withdrew from their positions and retreated to their bases in Hpasawng on Friday. We carried out clearance operations on Saturday,” a KNDF spokesperson said. “Skirmishes break out in Loikaw every day. They continue to carry out air and artillery strikes,” he added, referring to the regime’s army and air force. Less than a month after the launch of Operation 1027, Karenni resistance forces initiated their own anti-junta campaign in Karenni State, dubbed Operation 1111. Karenni anti-junta fighters have so far captured more than 20 junta bases and camps, taken over a district court and police headquarters in Karenni State’s administrative centre, Loikaw, and secured the surrender of two entire battalions stationed at Loikaw University. The KNDF and allied forces have also held control of most of Mese Township on the Thailand-Myanmar border since early November, and taken control in parts of the towns of Loikaw, Demoso and Nan Mei Khon in Karenni State. The KNDF also claims to have taken control of two towns in southern Shan State: Pekhon and Moebye. In eastern Bago Region, local residents and sources close to the PDF—the armed wing of the publicly mandated, shadow National Unity Government—say clashes are ongoing near the village of Mone, Kyaukkyi Township.

Myanmar military fending off attacks on several fronts despite ceasefire with Brotherhood Alliance

Armed groups including the AA, KIA, KNDF, PNLA, PDF, and various allies have fought fiercely with junta forces in five states and regions in the last two weeks

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