Myanmar military control weakening as anti-coup forces advance: Report

Expert analyses find ethnic armed groups and anti-coup forces consolidating their positions seven months after launching major offensive.

Myanmar’s military regime has lost control of more parts of the Southeast Asian country, particularly along its borders, since anti-coup forces formed an alliance to mount a renewed offensive at the end of October last year, according to the latest update from a group of prominent international experts.

The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) said in a report released on Thursday that the overall trajectory of the conflict in Myanmar since 2022 had been one of “expanding resistance control versus corresponding military junta losses”.

That process had “escalated rapidly from October 2023”, it said.

Since ethnic armed groups and anti-coup fighters known as People’s Defence Forces (PDF) began Operation 1027 last year, they have made significant advances, taking military posts and border towns in the north and east, along the border with China and Thailand, as well as in the west where Myanmar meets Bangladesh and India.

The SAC-M said the generals had lost complete authority over townships covering 86 percent of the country’s territory and home to 67 percent of Myanmar’s 55 million people.