Myanmar’s military appears to have abandoned the strategically important border town of Myawaddy on the eastern border with Thailand, after a sustained assault by an alliance of anti-coup fighters.
Thai PBS reported on Monday that more than 600 Myanmar nationals, including 67 military officers and 410 non-commissioned officers as well as their family members, were waiting for entry to Thailand after the regime in Naypyidaw requested permission for an aircraft to land on the Thai side to collect the group.
The Karen National Union (KNU) earlier said that soldiers from its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, in alliance with anti-coup fighters from the People’s Defence Force (PDF), had taken control of the military base in the town, sharing photos of weapons and ammunition they said they had seized.
Myawaddy lies just across the border from Mae Sot in Thailand and is a major trading route.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said that even with the renewed fighting since the February 2021 coup, bilateral trade across the checkpoint between April 2023 and March 2024 amounted to more than $1bn and Myawaddy’s loss was significant.
Credit: aljazeera.com
