Hundreds of residents of Pyin Oo Lwin – a garrison town in Mandalay Region – have been fleeing since Thursday due to fears of an imminent attack by an ethnic army and allied resistance forces, residents say.

Family members of military personnel stationed in the town, which is home to the Defense Service Academies – Myanmar’s West Point – and other military training schools, were among the first to start fleeing the town about 70 kilometers east of the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay, residents say.

Technology from China has helped the Myanmar military upgrade its internet controls, but resourceful users continue to exploit holes in the cyber dragnet.

Residents in Ward 1 of Payathonzu (Three Pagoda Pass), Kyainseikgyi Township, Karen State, are facing significant disruptions due to a gambling den operated by Chinese nationals. Despite the disturbances, locals are unable to file complaints as the area is under the control of various armed groups.

Local armed groups, including the Karen National Union (KNU), Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council (KNLA-PC), Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), and New Mon State Party (NMSP), are reportedly overseeing these gambling operations.

A statement issued on Wednesday by the Women’s Peace Network (WPN)—an advocacy organisation led by prominent Rohingya human rights activist Wai Wai Nu—claimed at least 200 Rohingya civilians, most of them women and children, had been killed in drone strikes by the Arakan Army (AA), on the Naf River the day before.

On this day in 1988, almost every citizen in Myanmar took to the streets to topple dictator Ne Win’s oppressive socialist regime, which had ruled the country with an iron fist since 1962.

Myanmar’s regime has been reinforcing defenses in Loikaw since it retook the capital of Karenni (Kayah) State, according to residents.

Fifty-two years after it was founded to fight the Communist Party of Burma in northeastern Myanmar near the Chinese border, the military’s Northeastern Command in Lashio, northern Shan State, fell on Saturday.

The defeat marks the first time since 1962, when the military staged its first coup, that a military command has been lost to ethnic armed groups and their allies. It was also a major milestone for Myanmar’s resistance movement, which has captured its first command since the 2021 coup.

The Arakan Army (AA) on 2 August engaged in a clash with Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) after ARSA members killed five civilians on 31 July.

Myanmar's junta has lost communications with senior officers at a major military base near the Chinese border, in a rare admission of battlefield failure after rebels announced they had taken control of the key regional army headquarters.

Min Aung Hlaing has again blamed China for his regime’s loss of more territory in the month since ethnic armed groups near the Chinese border resumed their Operation 1027 offensive.

Min Aung Hlaing chose Monday’s meeting of the junta cabinet to announce his plan to revive co-operatives, a failed system dating back to the dictatorship of Ne Win.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/26214693

Myanmar people seeking shelter in India’s northeastern Manipur state have been scapegoated for local bouts of ethnic conflict, in contrast to the largely warm reception in neighbouring Mizoram state.

Clashes are ongoing in Patheingyi Township and spreading closer to the city of Mandalay since resistance forces captured several military outposts in the township, a resistance spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Myanmar's embattled military government extended a state of emergency on Wednesday for another six months, state media said, as the junta struggles to maintain its grip on power with fighting flaring on multiple fronts and the economy in crisis.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) has told its commanders to protect Chinese interests and citizens as it advances in northern Shan State.

Beijing has influence over the MNDAA, a Han Chinese armed group from the Kokang Region in Shan State who migrated to Myanmar during the time of Qing dynasty to escape the Manchurians who had taken over China and formed the Qing dynasty.