A Chin Brotherhoods Alliance brigade leader vowed to completely drive the Burma army from southern Chin State after seizing several junta camps during an ongoing offensive against the Military Council in Matupi.
“We are going to remove the military dogs from our territory,” said the leader of the Matupi Chinland Defence Force (CDF) Brigade 1, which is part of the alliance. The Military Council has used airstrikes and artillery attacks against the resistance fighters and is now deploying reinforcements after losing territory over six days of fighting. He said that both sides have experienced casualties during attacks on the regime’s battalion headquarters and its strategic hilltop camp in the town but did not provide specific figures.
The Matupi CDF Brigade 1 attacked the regime’s installations in Matupi after its second brigade assaulted its camps outside the town, including the Matupi District office, which housed over 30 enemy soldiers on May 30.
The regime maintains two battalions—Infantry Battalion 140 and Light Infantry Battalion 304—and a vital base camp in Matupi town. So far, Chin Brotherhoods Alliance and its allies have taken over the Matupi Myoma Police Station and the General Administration Development office, a governmental building under military control since the attack on the town started on June 9.
Residents of Matupi Township, which borders Magwe Region, fled to the region and to the border of India’s Mizoram State before the violence began.
The United League of Arakan/Arakan Army, which controls the border with Rakhine State, and the Yaw Army from Magwe Region have deployed troops to assist during the joint offensive.
Late last year, the Chin resistance captured Lailengpi and Razua town in Matupi Township.
Other Chin fighters have seized Rihkhawdar, Lailengpi, Razua, Kyatwee, Cikha, Tonzang, Weibula, Ner Rein, Makui Imnu, and Sukhua towns.