New players emerge in fighting in Myanmar's northeast, as powerful ethnic militias intervene

Recently renewed combat in northeastern Myanmar between troops of the military government and ethnic minority militias has in the past few days become more complicated, as two minority groups not previously involved in the fighting stepped into the fray, claiming to act as a third force for stability.

The intervention of the powerful fighting forces of the United Wa State Army and the Shan State Army-North highlights tensions among the various ethnic minority guerrilla groups who have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.

While many of the groups have alliances with the pro-democracy resistance forces that arose to fight military rule after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, they prioritize their own goals, which include control over territory.

The focus of every group is now on Lashio, which is about 210 kilometers (130 miles) northeast of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city and headquarters of the northeastern military command of Myanmar’s ruling generals.

Two ethnic armed groups, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, last week had been advancing on Lashio, the biggest city in northern Shan state. The TNLA represents the Ta’ang or Palaung ethnic minority, and the MNDAA is a military force of the Kokang minority, who are ethnic Chinese.

The two groups had been part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which last October had launched a surprise offensive that succeeded in seizing large tracts of territory along the border with China. The current fighting that began last month had marked an end to a Chinese-brokered cease-fire that nominally stopped fighting between the army and the alliance.

But the United Wa State Army and the Shan State Army-North, who were not involved in the October offensive, late last week moved their own soldiers to the Lashio area, apparently impeding the offensive by the TNLA and MNDAA.

The United Wa State Army announced it had sent about 2,000 troops on Thursday into Tangyan, a township bordering Lashio, which had been under attack by the TNLA. Tangyan is believed to be home to a large number of ethnic Wa.

The Wa military is the biggest and strongest ethnic armed organization in Myanmar, with an army of approximately 30,000 well-equipped soldiers and sophisticated weaponry including heavy artillery and helicopters from China, with which it maintains close relations

Nyi Rang, a liaison officer for the group, told The Associated Press in a message on Friday that the move was meant to prevent the armed conflict from spreading to the town. He said the Wa group had negotiated with the military government at the request of residents before deploying its troops.

The Shan State Army-North sent more than 1,000 troops on Friday and Saturday into the nearby township of Mongyai, where the MNDAA has been fighting the Myanmar military, The Shan consider Mongyai to be in their sphere of influence, which should not be taken over by another group.

The group issued a statement through its affiliate media on Facebook stating that it had sent troops for the stability of the region and the security of the people.

“It is the region we had dominated,” Col. Sai Su, the group’s spokesperson, was quoted in the report as saying. “That’s why we did that to prevent the town from falling into the hands of the other organizations and to keep it under the administration of the Shan State Army. People also requested us to protect them.”

Two Mongyai residents, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, told the AP on Sunday that their area was calm after the Shan troops were deployed. One said Wa troops were also stationed nearby.

All the ethnic armed groups involved in the situation in Shan state maintain close relations with China. It's widely believed that last October's offensive had Beijing’s tacit approval because of its growing dissatisfaction with the military government's seeming indifference to the burgeoning drug trade along its border and the proliferation of centers in Myanmar at which cyberscams are run, with workers trafficked from China and elsewhere in the region.

Beijing has made clear it strongly backed a crackdown on scammers. Tens of thousands of employees of scam operations were repatriated to China, while the MNDAA, which assisted that effort, was allowed to retake a major border city it had once controlled.

However, China's overriding interest in the area is maintaining stability, which is endangered by the new fighting. so it is likely to back efforts such as the Wa and the Shan are carrying out to restrain the TNLA and MNDAA.