National Unity Government to establish union-level office in Sagaing Region

The National Unity Government (NUG) is planning to open a working site in Sagaing Region this month for its officials and staff, the NUG home affairs and immigration minister confirmed to Myanmar Now last week. The development comes less than two months after the NUG’s acting president Duwa Lashi La called on exiled NUG officials to return to Myanmar, marking the initiation of the group’s plans to operate inside the country. “We will implement a system in Sagaing Region very soon—in January—allowing NUG cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, secretaries, regional chief ministers, and their deputies to work together,” Minister Lwin Ko Latt said during an exclusive interview with Myanmar Now in Bago Region last week. The NUG is a body of shadow ministries formed and endorsed by deposed elected officials in April 2021 to oppose the Myanmar military coup of two months earlier. Since then, its ministries have drawn criticism for failing to convene or work in one place, contributing to its reputation as a government in exile. Allowing NUG officials to work in far-flung locations both domestically and internationally has caused unwelcome delays in making important decisions within the cabinet, according to Lwin Ko Latt. The body plans to form strategy commissions and gather officials in a single working place to address the problem, he said. NUG Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration Lwin Ko Latt in PDF-controlled territory in Bago Region “If it’s about military matters, we’ll convene a commission related to military affairs. If it’s political, we’ll combine all ministries and committees related to politics. And for administration, we’ll reorganise into about five major sectors in this way,” he added. Sagaing Region, where the NUG will establish its headquarters, has a population of over six million and is among the areas of Myanmar where opposition to military rule has consistently been strongest since the coup. The military regime has lost control of Sagaing Region to the extent that it was only able to collect information from around 800,000 people—estimated to represent less than 15 percent of the regional population—in a 2024 survey for which it released results in December. The regime’s report indicated that, of the 37 townships in Sagaing Region, their officials were ultimately only able to conduct a full census in the three townships of the Naga Self-Administered Zone in the region’s extreme northwest. Nine townships in Sagaing Region are completely out of the military’s control according to the report: Tigyaing, Indaw, Kawlin, Pinlebu, Myaung, Kani, Pale, Khin-U, and Wetlet. In all nine of these townships, the NUG’s armed wing, the People’s Defence Forces (PDF), and their allies have maintained a strong presence. The junta has designated the remaining 29 townships in Sagaing Region as partially controlled territories, including Monywa, the regional administrative centre and location of the Northwestern Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters. NUG defence minister Yee Mon inspecting the Thayetkone village base in Nawnghkio Township, northern Shan State, captured by Mandalay Region People's Defense Force (MDY-PDF) last year. (Photo: NUG Ministry of Defense) The NUG’s structure Since its formation in 2021 by the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Parliament)—itself made up of deposed members of parliament who had been elected to office in 2020—the NUG has declared itself “the only legitimate government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.” Structuring itself to shadow the government from which its officials were ousted, the NUG has kept two positions vacant to represent President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, whom the military regime is still holding in prison. The NUG appointed Duwa Lashi La, a Kachin legal expert, as acting president and Man Win Khaing Than, the ethnically Karen speaker of Myanmar’s upper legislative chamber the Amyotha Hluttaw, as prime minister. 17 ministries, each led by a minister and deputy minister, operate under these four executive offices. In his 2025 New Year’s address, Man Win Khaing Than said the NUG was streamlining, reforming its administrative sector, and concentrating on strengthening its relations with allies. Another potential focus for reform is the so-called “three pa system”, which has drawn widespread public criticism. The phrase refers to the acronyms for each of the subsectors of the NUG’s ground-level governance mechanisms: the People’s Administrative Organisations (PAO) and People’s Security Organisations (PSO)—both of which operated under the NUG’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration—and People’s Defence Organisations (PDO)—commanded by the NUG’s Ministry of Defence along with the PDF. Wrongful arrests and even extrajudicial killings of civilians added to the friction between NUG administrators and the broader public as early as 2023, culminating in popular protests in 2024. Acknowledging the flaws of the “three pa system” mechanisms, Lwin Ko Latt said that opening government offices inside Myanmar would be the only practical and timely way to correct them. “We need to take control of these mechanisms in a timely way. For real control, those with the relevant responsibility and authority must be in close proximity to these ‘three pa’ teams,” he said. He also recognised the life-or-death risk inherent in opening government offices in resistance-held territory, where junta airstrikes and shelling have been known to cause massive casualties, sometimes in a span of mere hours. However, after four years of armed resistance and training from allied ethnic armed organisations, the NUG has planned new security measures and the ministries of defence and home affairs are ready to take responsibility for the implementation of their policies, Lwin Ko Latt said. “From ministerial security levels and everything else, we will carefully prepare and establish NUG staff offices,” he added. “I can guarantee from now: direct interaction between the NUG and the public will begin in January.” Moreover, Lwin Ko Latt noted, the NUG’s ministers are serving in their positions under a mandate from the people, and therefore they must face life-threatening risks and difficulties alongside the people. “Ordinary people are enduring these hardships with resilience. We, as government ministers and deputy ministers, must also be brave enough to face these hardships,” he said. “We must be brave enough to face risks together with the people. Only by facing these challenges can we become a government that people feel they can rely on and trust.”

National Unity Government to establish union-level office in Sagaing Region

The body calling itself the only legitimate government of Myanmar has recognised the need to implement its policies directly from within Myanmar, facing challenges alongside the people, one of its ministers said

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