Thousands flee strategic border town as control of vital trade hubs becomes focus of war in Shan State

One month into a major military offensive launched by ethnic armed groups against the Myanmar junta, both sides are now heavily concentrating their efforts on control of key border towns and transport routes in the country’s northeast near China. The border towns of Laukkai, Chin Shwe Haw and Muse in northeastern Shan State are all vital to trade between Myanmar and China, which was worth about two billion dollars in the first half of the current financial year alone. Since the Brotherhood Alliance—the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Arakan Army—began Operation 1027 on October 27, its forces have seized control of Chin Shwe Haw and encircled Laukkai. On Sunday, it captured another major border gate in Muse. Meanwhile, the alliance’s final push to occupy Laukkai also appears to be imminent, as tens of thousands of residents were allowed to leave the town over the weekend. This comes after the Chinese embassy in Yangon issued an alert on Friday telling its citizens in Laukkai to leave immediately. Laukkai and Chin Shwe Haw form part of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, home to the Chinese-speaking Kokang ethnic group. Of the three armed groups in the alliance, the MNDAA represents the Kokang, while the TNLA represents the Ta`ang, another ethnic group based in northern Shan State. Since the Brotherhood Alliance has destroyed all major bridges connecting the border towns to Lashio—northern Shan State’s largest city and the seat of the junta’s Northeastern Regional Military Command—to block military reinforcements, fleeing from Laukkai to Lashio is not an option for the thousands seeking safety. A photo circulating on social media shows some of the more than 10,000 people who have fled Laukkai since Sunday morning This means that many are now going south, towards territories controlled by the United Wa State Army, the country’s most powerful armed ethnic group, and from there to other cities. The MNDAA previously urged locals to stay in Laukkai, citing security concerns, but since it announced yesterday morning that they could leave, a long line of cars and motorcycles has filled the town’s main road. An estimated 10,000 residents have left over the past 24 hours. MNDAA spokesperson Li Kyar Win told Myanmar Now that his group has been organising for the locals to go to Chin Shwe Haw and then on to the Wa-controlled areas. “This is mainly for their safety, but there are residents left in the town although many are now on the roads which are all jammed,” he said, adding that clashes between the MNDAA and junta troops continued to take place in and around Laukkai on Sunday. A 20-year-old migrant worker from Sagaing Region who was among those leaving the town yesterday said that most of its shops were closed and almost all of its houses were now empty. Since the start of Operation 1027, a string of towns located along the China-Myanmar border in northern Shan State have fallen under the control of the Brotherhood Alliance. These towns include Namkham, Wantaein, Mongko, Hpawnghseng, Kyu Koke (Pang Hseng) and Kunlong, in addition to Chin Shwe Haw. The fall of Kunlong, an important town on the Thanlwin (Salween) River, seems to have come as the heaviest psychological blow to the junta. Not only was the regime’s tactical military command for northern Shan State based there, but it is also the site of a major battle with the Burmese Communist Party that has long been touted by the Myanmar military as one of the proudest chapters in its history. It also seems increasingly likely that the Brotherhood Alliance will gain control of Muse, the single most important focal point of border trade with China. Located opposite the city of Ruili in China’s Yunnan Province, the town has five border gates, of which the one called the Kyin San Kyawt gate reportedly fell under MNDAA control on Sunday. Pro-junta media outlets published photos of damaged buildings at the Kyin San Kyawt border gate on Monday, saying that anti-regime forces had attacked a tactical military outpost on a nearby hill at about 9pm last night. Last Thursday, hundreds of transport trucks were engulfed by flames at the gate, apparently as a result of an exchange of fire between the junta troops and the Brotherhood Alliance. The junta accused both the MNDAA and the TNLA of deliberately causing the fire by dropping bombs on the trucks from drones. On Monday, TNLA spokesperson Tar Aike Kyaw confirmed that fighting took place around Muse on Sunday and told Myanmar Now that the group and its allies would continue to fight to dismantle all of the junta's outposts in the area. "All these outposts are of strategic military value to us," he said without further elaboration. Since almost all the border trading points for China-Myanmar trade are now caught up in armed violence, Myanmar traders are now entirely dependent on Mongla, a town on the Myanmar-China border controlled by another ethnic armed group the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), for access to the Chinese market. Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun has claimed in recent statements to the media that most of the roads and bridges sabotaged since the start of Operation 1027 have now been repaired. The military’s counter attacks have been causing “massive casualties” to the Brotherhood Alliance, he added. Despite such claims, the junta has been unable to reoccupy any of the territories it has lost so far. As in other parts of the country where it has suffered significant losses on the ground, the military has had to rely heavily on aerial bombardments and artillery shelling to try to prevent the Brotherhood Alliance from making any further gains. Early Sunday morning, a junta airstrike destroyed a public hospital in Namkham Township, which has been largely under the TNLA’s control since early this month. Two 500-lb bombs were reportedly dropped, causing extensive damage to the hospital and injuring at least one local woman, according to residents. The Mongkyet junta outpost in Lashio Township, which the TNLA announced it had captured on November 24 (TNLA) As Operation 1027 continues to force the military to concentrate its overstretched forces and firepower in northern Shan State, other armed groups opposed to the junta have also stepped up their attacks. On November 14, the Chin National Front announced the capture of Rikhawdar, a trade hub on the India-Myanmar border. And on Friday, another town on the same border also fell to ethnic Chin resistance forces.

Thousands flee strategic border town as control of vital trade hubs becomes focus of war in Shan State

The fall of yet another border gate to the Brotherhood Alliance is just the latest sign of the junta’s weak hold over a region that is essential to Myanmar’s struggling economy

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