Nearly three hundred soldiers from the Burmese junta crossed the border with India to flee the advance of rebel forces fighting the military in power in Burma, an Indian paramilitary officer told Agence France on Friday, January 19. -Press. “We have accommodated them in our camp,” the officer said, adding that the arriving soldiers receive “all the support they need.”
Armed clashes have raged in certain Burmese regions adjoining the Indian border since the Arakan Army (AA) launched a major operation against the security forces in November, inflicting setbacks on the regular army, power since a coup in 2021. This offensive ended a largely respected ceasefire in this region since the putsch.
The AA said on Sunday it had captured the town of Paletwa in Chin State, about 20 kilometers from the border with Bangladesh, and six military bases along the border in the Indian state of Mizoram .
The Indian officer said his unit was collecting soldiers’ biometric data and had asked the defense ministry in New Delhi for permission to send them back to Myanmar. Two Burmese military planes have arrived in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram state, to collect and repatriate soldiers who have withdrawn from the conflict.
In October, an alliance between the AA and two other ethnic minority groups launched a joint offensive against the junta in Shan State, capturing towns and seizing vital trading centers on the Chinese border in the north. Last week, the alliance announced a Chinese-led ceasefire in the region after months of conflict, which posed the biggest threat to the junta since it took power. .