The armed alliance of ethnic minorities behind an ongoing offensive in northern Burma on the border with China seized several military posts on Saturday, according to local media.
Fighting intensified in much of northern Shan state near the Chinese border this week, forcing more than 23,000 people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army (AA) claim to have seized dozens of outposts and four cities and blocked key trade routes to China.
Local media said TNLA fighters on Saturday took control of two outposts occupied by pro-government militias near Lashio, the largest city in northern Shan state.
The MNDAA said it had occupied three military outposts further east.
The junta has not yet commented on Saturday’s clashes, but on Thursday a spokesman dismissed claims that armed groups had seized several towns in Shan state as “propaganda.”
AFP journalists were detained on Saturday in China’s Yunnan province at a police checkpoint about fifty kilometers from the Chinshwehaw border post, over which the Myanmar army admitted on Wednesday that it had lost control.
More than a dozen ethnic groups are operating in Burma, particularly in the border regions, demanding greater political autonomy, control of some of the country’s natural wealth or lucrative trade.
Some of them trained and equipped the armed groups of political opponents that spread across the country after the 2021 coup and the repression that followed.