At least 20 military personnel and seven militiamen have been killed since November 2 in clashes with the Theinni People’s Defense Force (PDF) in Shan State, northern Burma. In addition, 60 military personnel and 20 militiamen have been wounded.
The PDF reported that the fighting began after the start of military patrols in the Hseni-Hopan region, according to the newspaper ‘Irrawaddy’, which warned that it had not been able to verify the militia figures.
The PDF is one of the few armed groups created in Shan state after the coup of 2021 and the area is one of those which has experienced the least armed conflict since the beginning of the revolt against the Armed Forces.
The armed group added that it has requested weapons from the National Unity Government formed after the coup, but has not received any such assistance so far.
«The villages are behind our main base, so we will fight to the death to protect them,» the PDF stressed in the statement released Monday.
The Burmese opposition accuses the junta of the deaths of nearly 2,400 people in its crackdown since the February 1, 2021 coup and estimates that more than 12,000 are being illegally detained awaiting trial, according to the NGO Association for Political Prisoners of Burma (AAPP).
The initial protests against the coup have led to the formation of armed resistance groups and the reinforcement of ethnic militias already present in the country before the coup.
