Second junta battalion surrenders to resistance in Kokang region, MNDAA says

The whole of the military’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 125, stationed in the northern Shan State border town of Konkyan, surrendered to the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) on Tuesday, a spokesperson from the ethnic Kokang armed organisation said. IB 125 operates in the Laukkai District town in the Kokang Self-Administered Zone under the direction of the Northeastern Regional Military Command, which is based in the city of Lashio. “Yesterday [junta troops] from the Konkyan hill base raised a white flag and surrendered,” said the MNDAA’s Li Kyar Win on Wednesday, but did not specify the number of soldiers that turned themselves over. Myanmar army troops have been stationed in Konkyan for more than 60 years; the current base was constructed in 1992. “Their Konkyan base has basements and helipads, and it is even stronger than the Kunlong base,” Li Kyar Win explained, referring to another site between the Kokang and Wa self-administered areas which the MNDAA overran on November 9. They were accompanied by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, the three of which together form the three groups of the Brotherhood Alliance, which, since late October has been engaged in an offensive against the military in northern Shan State dubbed Operation 1027. “No matter how many battles broke out in the Kokang region, they always used to be able to defend the Konkyan base,” Li Kyar Win continued, referring to the Myanmar army. “The fact that the soldiers from such a station have surrendered highlights the fact that the military is indeed falling.” IB 125 is the second battalion in Laukkai to have turned themselves over to the Brotherhood in recent weeks; on November 12, more than 120 military personnel and their family members from IB 129 did the same. Some 127 soldiers and their relatives from the Laukkai-based IB 129 surrender their weapons to the resistance on November 12 (The Kokang) Cpt Zin Yaw, an officer who defected from the military after the February 2021 coup in the country, told Myanmar Now that the surrenders suggested that the soldiers in question were not receiving the support they had likely requested from the regime’s leadership in Naypyitaw. “They did not send them reinforcements and told them to hold off on their own, so the foot soldiers don’t want to listen to their orders anymore,” the former captain speculated. “You could say that they have finally prioritised their lives and their families over the military council and joined the people’s side.” Zin Yaw said he anticipates that more battalions in the area will follow, and that the resistance forces may eventually be able to seize the Laukkai regional command. “Their lives will be spared if they choose the people’s side. It’s as simple as that and they know that now.” On October 30, more than 40 soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 143 surrendered to the Brotherhood in Kunlong Township, among whom was the unit’s deputy commander-in-chief and two squadron commanders. Since the start of Operation 1027, the Brotherhood Alliance has seized more than 100 junta bases in northern Shan State, 180 of which are in the Kokang region. There have been large surrenders to resistance forces elsewhere in recent weeks, including 23 Myanmar army soldiers in Mon State’s Kyaikmayaw Township on November 13 and 32 troops who had been stationed inside Loikaw University in the Karenni State capital on November 14.

Second junta battalion surrenders to resistance in Kokang region, MNDAA says

The troops were stationed in the fortified hill base Konkyan town which has not been breached before, according to the Kokang ethnic armed organisation

Subscribe for full access

The Myanmar prisoner who regained his freedom—with a spoon

Cut off by conflict, farmers of the Chin Hills face mounting hardships

When ‘living becomes harder than dying’: The quiet crisis consuming Yangon

Murder on the Moei: How Chinese cyber gangs in Myanmar are killing with impunity

Three executed for murder in MNDAA-controlled Mongko

Hong Kong-based company to resume work on electric power projects in Yangon

Junta struggles to regain territory ahead of election push

Future uncertain for Mogok, Mongmit after planned handover to Myanmar military

Four junta soldiers killed in Mandalay’s Ngazun Township; 12 locals arrested

KIA set to fully resume rare earth mining in captured ‘special region’

Myanmar junta airstrikes kill three civilians sheltering in Rakhine State monastery

Myanmar’s factories cling to life as power shortages persist

Bought Out or Seized: Mandalay farmers face impossible choices amid land grab

Myanmar junta partners with Chinese firm to build natural gas terminal despite Rakhine State conflict

Thai officials call on Myanmar regime to crack down on fraud, trafficking gangs on Thai-Karen State border

Myanmar military continues to lose ground to anti-junta forces in northern Shan State

Despite escalating violence, Myanmar junta leader says elections will proceed

NUG-founded bank set to sell shares to meet ‘emergency needs’

Myanmar’s junta bears ‘sole responsibility’ for Suu Kyi’s health—NLD

Karenni youth fight for freedom at the cost of their lives and limbs

The mothers of the Magway resistance

A Myanmar artist finds freedom behind bars—by portraying prisoners’ oppression

As Myanmar’s revolution beckons, a new breed of activist photographers heeds the call

The man behind the Myanmar junta’s campaign of terror in Sagaing

Authorities tighten restrictions on passport process for Myanmar nationals in Thailand

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles