The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance (MNDAA) has agreed to surrender Lashio to the military regime under pressure from China, but its troops will remain stationed around the northern Shan State capital, effectively restricting the junta’s movements.
MNDAA troops will withdraw from 12 wards in Lashio but will hold positions close to junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 507, Infantry Battalion 68, and Northeastern Command, and roads connecting Lashio with Namtu, Hsipaw, and Hsenwi townships, The Irrawaddy has learned.
Under the China-mediated agreement, the regime in turn is not allowed to conduct military operations in and around Lashio, and its movements will be closely monitored, a source close to the ethnic army told The Irrawaddy.
“The regime is not allowed to fire a single artillery shell in Lashio,” the source said. “The moment it does, MNDAA troops return. The MNDAA will remain around the town and near key military bases, so junta troops in the town will effectively be encircled and under their control. It remains to be seen how many soldiers the regime dares to send to Lashio.”
MNDAA troops will also remain on roads from Mongyai, Hsipaw, and Namlan, he added.
The MNDAA is a member of the Brotherhood Alliance that launched anti-regime Operation 1027 across northern Shan State in October 2023 alongside several resistance groups.
The alliance seized most of northern Shan State, Lashio, and important trade routes with China. Lashio, which housed the junta’s Northeastern Command, fell last August.
The MNDAA’s Lashio administration committee, which is headed by a military commander, will also remain in Lashio, where it will run a liaison office and a few others. China will also send a representative to monitor the situation.
Lashio’s public hospital will be run jointly by the Chinese government and the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the most powerful ethnic armed organization in Myanmar, which is close to Beijing and has declared neutrality in conflicts between the regime and the Brotherhood Alliance.
The MNDAA has already been moving medical devices from Lashio Hospital to the public hospital in Hsenwi, which it also controls, according to hospital staff.
Junta officials are set to enter Lashio on April 21.
But the deal has sparked fear of reprisals among locals who have served in the MNDAA administration, public security, and health and education services, as well as civil servants who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Ordinary citizens are also worried that they will be targeted in the junta’s frantic conscription drive.
By the time of the agreement, the MNDAA had more or less restored normalcy in the town. Currently, students are taking their year-end exams there.
Last month, rumors that the MNDAA would be pressured to leave sparked a “silent protest” from Lashio residents calling on China to stop interfering and urging the ethnic army to stay.
An MNDAA official in Lashio said the ethnic armed group “may return to Lashio depending on the military situation.”
China is keen to resume border trade, but to pressure the MNDAA to quit Lashio it threatened to close all border crossings with territory the ethnic army holds.
