The Ta’ang ethnic armed organisation has controlled most of the township, which is located on the main trade route to the China-Myanmar and has a population of around 100,000, since the first week of December. Photos from earlier this month show TNLA fighters occupying the town of Namkham. Photos taken at the Sakhan Thit hill base this week show the TNLA fighters raising their organisation’s flag, destroyed and bullet-riddled junta fortifications, the body of a junta soldier, and weapons and ammunition captured by the TNLA.
Since late October, the TNLA has been coordinating with resistance forces and its partner organisations in the Brotherhood Alliance in an offensive campaign–dubbed Operation 1027–against regime forces in northern Shan State. Three days before taking full control of Namkham Township, the TNLA captured Namhsan, northern Shan State, the administrative seat of Tawngpeng District and the Palaung Self-Administered Zone. TNLA fighters are also currently targeting military bases elsewhere in northern Shan State, including in the towns of Kutkai and Manton.
