Over 70,000 residents from 50 villages in Kalay Township, Sagaing Region, have fled their homes due to a regime counteroffensive into neighboring Chinland since October, residents told DVB.
A military source told DVB on the condition of anonymity that the regime columns leaving northern Kalay is over 1,000 troops and from southern Kalay is under 1,000 troops. Kalay is located 144 miles (231 km) north of the Sagaing Region capital Monywa and home to the regime Regional Operation Command (ROC).
The source added that the regime column from southern Kalay is advancing toward Falam Township, while the column from northern Kalay is advancing toward Tedim Township, in northern Chinland.
Kalay is located 52 miles (84 km) southeast of Tedim and 76 miles (122 km) northeast of Falam. Tedim and Falam are 68-117 miles (109-188 km) north of the Chinland capital Hakha.
Tedim is contested between regime and Chin resistance forces. Falam was seized by Chin resistance forces after a five-month-long battle to take the remaining regime Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 268 ended on April 7.
The Chin Brotherhood, a coalition of resistance forces formed in opposition to the Chin National Army (CNA)-led Chinland Council, stated that it and its allied People’s Defence Force (PDF)-Zoland has killed at least 40 regime troops during fighting in Tedim since Oct. 29. No casualties were reported by Chin resistance forces.
It also claimed that it had rescued 14 civilians abducted by regime forces and took an unspecified number of regime troops prisoner on Nov. 6.
The Interim Chin National Consultative Council (ICNCC), the Chin Brotherhood’s political wing formed after the 2021 coup to represent all Chin resistance groups, and the Chinland Council, which was established on Feb. 1, 2023 after the CNA split from the ICNCC, agreed to merge and form a single governing body called the Chin National Council in February.
Khonumthung News, a media outlet covering Chinland, reported on Nov. 6 that regime forces recaptured the Mount Kennedy outpost from the PDF-Zoland on Nov. 4.
At least nine civilians were killed and 50 others were injured by airstrikes reportedly carried out by the Myanmar Air Force on Mindat, Matupi, Kanpetlet, Tonzang and Hakha townships in October.
The Chinland Defence Force (CDF)-Hakha has imposed a curfew on Hakha residents from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. – effective from Oct. 29 until Jan. 31, 2026 – citing the “safety of residents” amid nighttime military operations.
Mindat, Matupi, Kanpetlet, Tonzang and Falam in Chinland, including the Myanmar-India border town of Rihkhawdar, have been seized by Chin resistance forces since the uprising to the 2021 military coup began.
Paletwa Township in southern Chinland, located 199 miles (321 km) south of Hakha, was seized by the Arakan Army (AA) in January 2024 after it launched its Arakan State offensive on Nov. 13, 2023.
The regime controls the state capital Hakha and Thantlang, located 22 miles (35 km) west of Hakha, as well as parts of northern Chinland’s Tedim.
The regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC) has announced that elections scheduled to begin on Dec. 28 — with polls to continue into January 2026 — will not be held in southern Chinland’s Paletwa, Matupi, Kanpetlet and Mindat.
The UEC stated that polls will be held in Tedim and Hakha during the first phase of the regime elections. Chinland has a total of nine townships.
