Fighters from Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic minority armed group have moved into a strategic town fought over by the junta and another ethnic armed group for weeks, they and the military said on Sunday.
Fighting has rocked Lashio in northern Shan state since early this month after the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) renewed an offensive against the military.
On Thursday the MNDAA claimed it had captured the town of around 150,000 people and the military’s northeastern command there — a claim denied by the junta.
On Saturday the United Wa State Army (UWSA) — another ethnic minority armed group with greater manpower — moved personnel into Lashio to “protect” its properties there, its spokesman told AFP.
The UWSA is the best-equipped of Myanmar’s dozen or so ethnic rebel groups, with close ties to China, which analysts say supplies much of its weaponry.
It has so far stayed out of the fighting sparked by the military’s 2021 coup, which reignited decades-old conflicts with some ethnic minority groups.
“Security members from Wa State entered into Lashio town on the night of the 27th to protect our external relations office and properties in Lashio township,” UWSA spokesman Nyi Rang told AFP.
“Before entering the town, we informed both sides which are fighting and entered smoothly with their approval.”
Wa personnel in Lashio “are not going to intervene, cooperate nor give support to the groups which are fighting,” he said.
He did not say how many UWSA fighters were now in the town, or how long they would stay.
The military had “been informed in advance” about the move, the junta’s information team said in a statement, without giving details.
Military sources told AFP on Sunday that the northeastern command was still under its control.
AFP was unable to reach a spokesman for the MNDAA for comment.
The loss of Lashio and the regional military command would be a huge blow from the junta, which has lost territory to the MNDAA and other armed groups in recent weeks.
In January the MNDAA captured the city of Laukkai near Myanmar’s border with China after around 2,000 junta troops surrendered, in one of the military’s biggest defeats in decades.
South of Laukkai, the Wa region remains virtually locked-off, ringed by checkpoints and tight internal controls, and uses the Chinese yuan and internet services.
China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta, but analysts say it also maintains ties with armed ethnic groups in Myanmar that hold territory near its border.
Beijing was “paying close attention to the situation in northern Myanmar” and urged a halt to the fighting, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a press conference on Thursday.
Neither the junta nor the MNDAA have released casualty figures from the fighting in Lashio, which broke out on July 3.
Local rescue groups say dozens of civilians have been killed and wounded.