The military’s State Administrative Council has indefinitely closed Kalay airport as the regime’s forces wages a major offensive against civilian resistance groups from the area.
All inbound and outbound flights have been suspended at the airport in Sagaing Region since 6 December.
”The airport authority has closed the airport without giving any reason and no one is allowed to enter,” a travel agent told Khonumthung News while she was in the process of informing all her customers who had bought tickets.
The airport in Kalay was reopened only recently, on 27 October, after the junta closed it on 1 February, the same day it toppled the democratic government on the pretext of pandemic prevention.
For the short period of the reopening, those who could afford to fly took advantage of this opportunity following escalating clashes with the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) and the military in the Yaw Region, which at times blocked the route from Kalay to Gangaw or made it unaffordable due to the many checkpoints on the way from Kalay to Kalaywa.
Many travellers from Kabaw Valley or Chin State preferred flying if they needed to visit other towns.
The army set many houses on fire during fighting that has intensified in southern Kalay Township. Last month, junta soldiers killed two civilian fighters and a female medic and arrested 9 other female medics during a raid on a PDF camp.