A property was hit by heavy artillery and burned to ground: Photo via a viral Facebook
10 September 2021
Myanmar’s military launches airstrikes in Lungler village in Thantlang township, Chin State, targeting the local militias, also known as the Chinland Defense Forces (CDFs), as fighting intensifies across Chin State. The military aircraft is spotted carrying airstrikes in a village near the India-Myanmar border. “The airstrikes come as CDFs and Myanmar army clashed near Lungler village”, said a local villager near Lungler village.
An ongoing clash between CDFs and Myanmar’s military in middle of Thantlang Town is also reported. Witnesses say that two bodies of Burmese soldiers laid down in the middle of the street with six civilians being injured reported and one is in critical condition. Military junta used heavy artillery and bomb and one property is wholly burned down. So far, details of casualty and damage are yet to be known.
The fighting between Myanmar’s military and CDF has intensified as Myanmar’s Unity Government (NUG), formed by the opponent of the country’s military coup, has urged all citizens to revolt against the junta government.
The CDFs were formed locally by young people based on their respective regions in Chin State to resist Myanmar’s military, following a coup d’état on 1 February. Most of the CDF’s members received military training from the Chin National Army (CNA), one of the ethnic armed organizations in Myanmar that has been fighting against Myanmar’s military for decades. CNF is a member of ethnic armed organizations that signed a nationwide ceasefire agreement in 2015. But after the military’s coup on 1 February, the group allied with NUG, and provided military training to CDFs and other militia groups who fight against Myanmar’s military junta.
Located in western Myanmar border to India, Chin State is one of the major ethnic states of Myanmar, home to the Chin ethnic people. The Chin people are one of the most oppressed ethnic groups in Myanmar under the Myanmar military’s rule, posting extreme poverty and enormous refugee crisis.
Since its formation in early April, the CDFs have clashed over a hundred times with Myanmar’s military, creating a major humanitarian crisis across Chin State. According to the Chin Human Rights Organization, the total number of internally displaced people since 1 February coup, in Chin State has exceeded 40,000 people.
