A Myanmar military convoy consisting of 80 vehicles including artillery and armored vehicles has arrived in Mindat in southern Chin State, according to the Chinland Defense Force (CDF), a local resistance group fighting the regime.
The convoy headed into the Chin Hills along the Monywa-Pakokku Road. Some vehicles are transporting artillery, and most of the other vehicles are entirely covered and believed to be loaded with ammunition, said a leader of the Mindat CDF.
“They are currently in Mindat. We still don’t know if they are going to attack us or if they are transporting food supplies to Matupi. There is still no clash,” he told The Irrawaddy.
Mindat CDF speculates that junta troops will either attack resistance groups in the Chin Hills or advance to Matupi to reinforce its presence at the border of Chin and Rakhine states, where tensions are growing between the military regime and ethnic armed organization the Arakan Army.
Mindat CDF said that it has refrained from ambushing the convoy out of fear that junta troops will retaliate by raiding nearby villages and harming civilians.
The regime has already shut down phone and internet services in Mindat and many other townships across Chin State, as well as blocking supply routes into the region.
“Our region was already a poor state even before the coup, and we have been suffering for more than one year now. I don’t want to say what difficulties we are going through because we have grown resilient and people across the country are also suffering one way or another,” a Mindat resident told The Irrawaddy.
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