The Brotherhood Alliance, made up of three powerful guerrillas operating in northeastern Burma, attacked several positions occupied by the Army in Shan State and announced that it was taking up arms against the military junta.
This alliance, made up of the Arakan Army (AA), the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Burma Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), launched a simultaneous offensive against several objectives and bases early on Friday. military in some cities near the border with China.
In a statement, the MNDAA, made up of the Kokang ethnic group, stressed that "the united forces" aim to "eradicate the oppression of the military dictatorship", an aspiration "shared with all the Burmese people."
"Our main objectives are the desire to safeguard the lives of civilians, assert our right to self-defense, maintain control over our territory and respond to the continuous artillery and air attacks perpetrated by the military junta," the rebel group notes. .
In separate statements, the other groups also claimed the same objectives, in addition to "eradicating" illegal mafias and fraudulent online gambling companies associated with the military junta and nesting near the border with China.
In photographs and videos shared by the rebels on social networks, they claim to have killed an indefinite number of Burmese soldiers and taken control of official buildings in cities such as Muse, Lashio or Chin Shwe Haw, strategic steps for trade with the neighboring Chinese province of Yunan.
General Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the military government, acknowledged in an interview with the pro-military media NP News that cities in northern Shan State had been attacked and that military personnel had died, without specifying a number.
This new combat front, which adds to the clashes throughout the country with other ethnic guerrillas or the forces created by the democratic opposition to the coup d'état of February 2021, creates an important challenge for the military junta, which since the riot has shown itself to be implacable with dissidence.
According to analysts specialized in the Burmese conflict, the Brotherhood Alliance has some 15,000 combatants and a significant arsenal of weapons, the vast majority of which are manufactured in China - a country with which members of the alliance maintain good relations, as does the military junta. -.
For its part, the National Unity Government (NUG), formed after the coup by pro-democracy politicians and activists and which claims to be the legitimate government of the country, announced that its armed wing - the People's Defense Force (PDF) - " will join forces" and participate "actively" with the Brotherhood Alliance.
"The time has come for all ethnic revolutionary organizations, the PDF and the people to fully commit themselves to the elimination of the military dictatorship," the NUG said in a statement.
The 2021 coup has plunged Burma into a deep political, social and economic crisis and has opened a spiral of violence that has exacerbated the guerrilla war that the country has been experiencing for decades.
According to the latest count by the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (AAPP), a local NGO, 19,632 political prisoners remain detained and 4,160 people have died in the hands of the armed forces since the coup.
