Myanmar military steps up fight for rare earth area and border routes

(Reuters)

May 25 – Myanmar’s military has launched renewed offensives into several border regions, including a frontier area with critical rare earth deposits and other ​vital trade routes, a month after a new administration took formal control of the war-torn country.

New military chief Ye Win Oo, who took office ‌in March after his long-time predecessor stepped down to become president, is making an aggressive push to reclaim strategic border strongholds from ethnic armies that have gained strength in recent years, spokesmen for rebel groups and analysts told Reuters.

The military’s recent offensives have focused on Kachin State, a region rich in heavy rare-earth elements that abuts China, as well as Chin State on the Indian border and ​a key trade corridor in Karen State, next to Thailand.

At a meeting last week, Ye Win Oo told soldiers that the military had secured Falam ​town in Chin State and an arterial route between Mandalay and Myitkyina in Kachin State, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar ⁠newspaper reported.

“The military’s strategic rationale is that they need to regain control over the primary communication and trade routes in Myanmar,” said Myanmar analyst Sai Kyi Zin ​Soe.

“We can see that the military is trying desperately to recapture towns that host border trade gates.”

An official from Myanmar’s presidential office, reached via phone, declined to comment.

Reuters could ​not independently verify the details of military offensives and their early successes across parts of Myanmar, where media access remains restricted.

The offensives come after former junta chief-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing last month asked rebel groups opposed to the military to enter into peace talks within 100 days – a proposal that many ethnic armies immediately rejected.

Myanmar’s ongoing conflict was sparked in 2021, when the military staged a coup ​that ousted the democratically elected civilian government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The takeover triggered a nationwide uprising that escalated into an armed resistance, with multiple ethnic ​armies and rebel groups pushing the military out of several regions.