Fighting has approached Nawnghkio town under the control of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, as the Myanmar regime wages an offensive to retake resistance-held northern Shan State despite its declared ceasefire.
Nawnghkio is strategically located on the main Mandalay-Lashio-Muse trade route linking Myanmar and China and is a gateway to northern Shan State, where most townships are now under the control of anti-regime revolutionary groups.
The junta’s military columns have penetrated Nawnghkio Township and are advancing towards Nawnghkio town along two routes—Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Road and Lawksawk-Kyawkku-Nawnghkio Road—engaging in clashes with the TNLA and its allies.
The TNLA said at a press conference on Thursday that clashes have occurred in about 13 villages across Nawnghkio Township, including Naung Lin and Ommakhah.
Ommakhah Village is situated along the Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Road approximately 11.9 km southwest of Nawnghkio town. Naung Lin lies about 7 km south of the town near the Lawksawk-Kyawkku-Nawnghkio Road.
TNLA spokesperson Lway Yay Oo told media the regime is deploying reinforcements to several areas outside Nawnghkio town, while regime aircraft were dropping supplies.
She added that even as the TNLA faces intense pressure from the Chinese government to stop fighting the regime, the latter continues its offensive against the TNLA despite having declared a ceasefire through the end of June.
“We are planning for the safety of Nawnghkio town as much as we can. We are not worried about the military situation,” the spokesperson said.
However, she warned that residents of Nawnghkio Township need to take care for their safety.
The TNLA is a member of the Brotherhood Alliance along with two other ethnic armies: the Arakan Army (AA) based in Rakhine State, and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), a Kokang ethnic armed group from northern Shan State.
Along with several anti-regime resistance groups including the People’s Defense Force (PDF), which is the armed wing of the civilian National Unity Government (NUG), the Brotherhood Alliance launched Operation 1027, a major anti-regime military operation, across northern Shan State in October 2023.
During the operation, the ethnic alliance and allied resistance groups seized most of northern Shan State including the capital Lashio and vital trade routes with China. The TNLA and resistance allies seized additional towns in northern Mandalay Region, pushing towards the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay, in September 2024.
The TNLA and PDF groups jointly seized several regime bases in Madaya Township next to Mandalay and took control of many areas near the entrance of the junta’s garrison town, Pyin Oo Lwin, in Mandalay Region.
However, the TNLA and MNDAA have been forced to slow their operations after facing increasingly intense pressure from the Chinese government, which closed all border gates to the territories of the ethnic armed organizations in northern Shan State. China also pressured another powerful group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA) in eastern Shan State, to close the gates between its territory and MNDAA-held territory.
Since then, the TNLA has lost several areas it had seized to junta offensives in Nawnghkio Township, northern Shan State. The MNDAA was also forced by the Chinese government to return Lashio, which it had liberated with the help of several resistance groups, to the regime in April this year.
The TNLA recently told media that people in its territory in northern Shan State are facing hardships due to China’s blocking trade flows into its territory.
China-brokered peace talks between the TNLA and the regime are scheduled to be held in Kunming, Yunnan Province in August. The TNLA said at a press conference on Thursday it is joining the peace talks out of consideration for the hardships endured by people in its territory.
“We are still facing Chinese pressure. We are also finding ways to overcome it,” said Lway Yay Oo.
In contrast, the AA, which has not faced the same level of Chinese pressure, has liberated 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships as well as Paletwa Township in neighboring Chin State since expanding Operation 1027 to western Myanmar in November 2023.
The AA is now fighting for control of Kyaukphyu Township, where Chinese Belt and Road investments and the terminal of China’s oil and gas pipeline connecting to Yunnan province, are located.
Beijing recently urged the AA and another powerful ethnic army, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), to stop fighting the regime in Rakhine and Kachin states, respectively.
China’s growing interference in Myanmar’s internal affairs has fueled anti-China sentiment among Myanmar’s population.
