The Myanmar military has razed villages north of the city of Mandalay after insurgents who had been threatening to attack the country’s second biggest city from the area withdrew, a research group and residents said, apparently aiming to ensure the area cannot be re-occupied.
Forces of the junta that seized power in 2021 have been on the back foot for most of this year, losing large amounts of territory to ethnic minority insurgents, while allied pro-democracy fighters have made unprecedented gains in central areas including the Mandalay region.
But the junta has since November mobilized forces for offensives in Mandalay as well as the central areas of Sagaing and Magway, helped by ceasefires that two main insurgent groups in Shan state struck after they came under pressure from neighboring China to make peace.
The research group Data for Myanmar said junta forces had razed eight villages in Madaya township, just 25 kilometers (15 miles) to the north of Mandalay city, and one in nearby Thabeikkyin township.
Residents said large deployments of troops were putting everything to the torch in the villages that have mostly been abandoned by their thousands of residents.
“Villages are being burned until everything is gone. Troops go to the villages one after another and burn everything,” a resident of Madaya township told Radio Free Asia on Friday.
Residents were too frightened to think about going back, the resident said.
“No one can get close to check on their homes because the troops are still there,” said the resident who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals.
The villages had been occupied by members of pro-democracy militias known as People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs, that sprang up after the 2021 coup to fight to end military rule in collaboration with ethnic minority insurgents based in border regions.
PDFs have attacked the military relentlessly in central areas this year, taking over territory even on the approaches to Mandalay and the nearby garrison town of Pyin Oo Lwin, home to the military’s Defense Forces Academy.
But the military has been pushing back in the dry season, which began in November and traditionally favors the army that can transport its heavy equipment and supplies to more remote regions on dried-out roads.
Data for Myanmar said in a report on Thursday that the eight villages destroyed in the west of Madaya township included Mway Ku Toet Seik, Mway Thit Taw Yone, Mway Pu Thein, Thu Htay Kone and Mway Sin Kone.
In Thabeikkyin township, troops torched hundreds of homes in Twin Nge village, the group said.
PDF fighters had abandoned all of their positions in the villages before the troops began the sweep, residents said.
RFA tried to contact the spokesman for the military in the Mandalay region, Thein Htay, to ask about the situation but he did not respond.
Data for Myanmar said in November that 105,314 houses had been burned down across the country since the 2021 coup.
The conflict is causing a humanitarian crisis, compounded by disastrous flooding this year.
The United Nations says about a third of Myanmar’s population, or 18.6 million people, are in humanitarian need with children bearing the brunt of the crisis with 6 million of them in need as a result of displacement, food insecurity and malnutrition.
Edited by RFA Staff.
