Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese.
Intense fighting between Myanmar’s military and rebel forces in Sagaing region near the country’s border with India has forced more than 3,000 civilians to flee their homes and led to heavy casualties on both sides, according to sources.
The fiercest fighting in Tamu township began on Monday, as rebel fighters launched an offensive targeting temporary military camps in the area, prompting the military to reinforce its troops with airstrikes and drone bombs, residents, aid workers and anti-junta groups said.
Tamu is in Sagaing, a heartland region populated largely by members of the majority Burman community that has been torn by violence since democracy activists set up paramilitary groups to battle the military after the 2021 coup.
Since early January, more than 3,000 residents of Tamu township have fled some 24 kilometers (15 miles) to the border separating Sagaing region and India’s Manipur state, said aid workers.
Fighting continued on Thursday at a military camp between Tamu’s Htan Ta Pin and Pan Thar villages, an official from the anti-junta Tamu Township People’s Defense Force, or PDF, told RFA Burmese.
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The PDF official called the military camp “significant,” noting that around 400 pro-junta fighters are stationed there, including from the Pyu Saw Htee militia.
“We’re first attacking junta forces in Htan Ta Pin, and then we will advance toward Pan Thar,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “After Pan Thar falls, we could seize Tamu without difficulty.”
“Many junta soldiers” have been killed in the fighting, as well as 10 rebel fighters, he said.
RFA could not independently confirm the exact number of casualties on both sides.
Displaced ‘in dire need’
A civilian who fled the fighting in Tamu told RFA that the displaced are “in dire need” of food and clothing.
“We have been here for two weeks, taking refuge on the Manipur side of the border, not far from Tamu,” he said. “Those who can afford to, rent houses, while others live in tents. We rely on borrowing from others to survive.”
The junta has repeatedly used airstrikes to pound Tamu’s Khampat town and Ka Nan village, which are under the control of Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, prompting an exodus of civilians, according to aid workers and residents.
An airstrike on Jan. 16 killed two civilians, including a child, residents of Tamu said. The junta also conducted airstrikes on the nights of Jan. 20 and 21, they said.
Only about one-third of residents are left in Khampat town, an aid worker told RFA.
“Everyone is on high alert, constantly watching the sky with fright and exhaustion,” said the aid worker, who also declined to be named. “We also keep our eyes on our mobile phone connections — the moment the signal drops, we immediately take cover in underground shelters. We’ve come to understand that a loss of communication signals an impending airstrike.”
Posts on pro-junta pages on the social media platform Telegram said that on the evening of Jan. 28, the military attacked PDF fighters around Tamu’s Kyun Pin Thar village with artillery, airstrikes, and drones. They claimed that junta forces discovered the bodies of seven rebels and ammunition there.
Attempts by RFA to contact the junta’s spokesperson for Sagaing region by telephone went unanswered Thursday.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.