Bangkok — Myanmar's military junta escalated its campaign of violence on multiple fronts in the past 48 hours, burning a village and monastery in Chin State, triggering armed clashes along a massive reinforcement convoy route to Kachin State, and drawing fresh condemnation after a report revealed 114 women have been detained for exercising free expression online since the 2021 coup.
The junta soldiers and allied Pyusawhti militia entered Htinchaung Village in Mindat Township, Chin State, on Saturday, 30 May 2026, burning down homes and a monastery.
The village, located about ten miles south of Mindat Town, was left in ruins. Regime soldiers and militia members remain deployed in the village, at a nearby bridge, at crossroads connecting surrounding villages, and on a hill overlooking the area.
The assault followed a coordinated troop movement the previous day, when junta reconnaissance units departed from Artillery Battalion 368 in Kyaukhtu Town, Saw Township, Magway Region, and advanced into forests along the border between Mindat and Yaw townships.
A separate junta column of around 300 troops, which had been moving south from Kyaukhtu, reached Kanchaung and Kyauksit villages in Saw Township.
Salai Yaw Man, spokesperson for the Chin People's Army (CPA), had previously warned that the junta's ground offensive in the Chin Mountains was intensifying with fresh munitions and artillery channeled through domestic arms factories in neighboring Magway Region, according to Democratic Voice of Burma.
On the country's northern front, a junta convoy that originated from Mandalay and arrived in Kachin State's capital Myitkyina on Sunday, 31 May 2026, clashed with local resistance forces along its route, triggering multiple skirmishes.
The convoy consisted of around 300 vehicles — including two armored combat vehicles — and departed Mandalay on 22 May. It was the second such large convoy the junta has sent to reinforce its troops in Kachin State.
The Myitkyina–Mandalay Road has reopened, but clashes continue around Katha, Indaw, Maw Luu, and Namseeawng — towns along the Sagaing–Kachin border — and security remains highly uncertain, according to drivers operating along the route. In May, around 500 vehicles and 1,000 travelers were stranded near Katha Town due to fighting.
