Regime media broadcasted a video showing deputy leader Soe Win visiting soldiers receiving medical treatment at a hospital in Mawlamyine, the capital of Mon State, on April 29.

It was the first time he was seen in public since a drone attack was carried out by resistance forces on the Southeast Regional Military Headquarters, while he was reportedly inside, on April 9. 

“Unfortunately, there were many injured [in the drone attack] and the incident was deeply distressing [to Soe Win],” an anonymous source close to the military headquarters told DVB.

Soe Win held a meeting with regime officials, including the chief ministers of Mon and Karen states on Monday to discuss reinforcements being sent to Myawaddy, which was seized by the Karen National Union, and its allied resistance forces on April 11. 

Control of Myawaddy was handed back to the military by the Karen National Army (KNA), formerly known as the Border Guard Force (BGF), on April 23.

The KNA/BGF was tentatively holding the vital Thai-Burma border trade town that brings in over one billion U.S. dollars of revenue for the cash-strapped regime in Naypyidaw.

The KNU claimed that it withdrew from Myawaddy on April 21 because it wanted to avoid further civilian casualties.

Up to 4,000 civilians, who sought temporary refuge in Thailand from April 11-19, returned to Myawaddy once the fighting between the military and the KNU-led forces subsided.

The remaining 658 refugees returned to Burma from Thailand on April 24.

Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing has not been seen in public since the Defense Services Academy (DSA) was attacked by resistance forces during his expected visit to Pyin Oo Lwin on April 14.

He sent his wife two days later, in his place, to attend a Thingyan event at the DSA.