The indigenous Karen rebels have been fighting for weeks along with other armed groups opposing the military coup in Myanmar. In the end, hundreds of soldiers engaged in the security of Mayawaddi, an important city on the Thai border of the country, surrendered.
Anti-coup forces led by Karen rebels attacked the town of Mayawati a few weeks ago. They entered the city bit by bit, and the hundreds of Myanmar soldiers guarding the city eventually succumbed to them and agreed to surrender. BBC news.
A battalion of soldiers in the town of Thanganinang surrendered to the Karen National Union (KNUA) on Friday, the report said. The town is located 10 kilometers west of Mayawaddi.
And they are holding talks with the last remaining Myanmar army battalion in Mayawaddy this weekend, and it is likely that the army battalion has agreed to surrender.
The Karen National Union released a video showing a number of young fighters displaying large quantities of weapons, which they seized from soldiers.
The BBC also reported that in the last three years, the junta forces did not have to face such a big challenge. Mayawaddi’s loss of control over the city was a further setback for them.
This is the latest example of a series of defeats by the Myanmar army.
In the past few months, the military junta has lost large areas of Shan State bordering China and Rakhine State bordering Bangladesh to the insurgents.
Thousands of soldiers were either killed, surrendered, or fled. As a result, Myanmar’s junta government has made it mandatory for its residents to join the military.
The Karen National Union has been fighting for self-rule since Myanmar gained independence in 1948.
However, in the 1990s, they faced several defeats at the hands of government forces. Since 2015, they have been in a ceasefire with the government. But that situation changed after the military coup in 2021.
Karen fighters announced that the truce was overturned by the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government.
