The mountainous, neglected Chin State in Myanmar has been the site of fierce clashes between the military junta and local resistance groups. Crisis Group expert Richard Horsey visited to gauge the impact on the local population and assess what might come next for the region.
Richard Horsey for International Crisis Group
Before the Myanmar military staged a coup d’état in February 2021, Chin State had seen no major armed conflict for many years. The relatively small Chin National Front and its armed wing, the Chin National Army (CNA), had agreed to a ceasefire with the military in 2012, and the armed group had not engaged in major hostilities for more than a decade before that. After the military’s crackdown on peaceful anti-coup protests across Myanmar, however, people in Chin State – like their compatriots in other parts of Myanmar – took up arms. Today, more than three years after the coup, the CNA and other armed groups control most of the state.
Deep grievances predated the coup. Located in the country’s north west, on the border with India, the mountainous state has faced discrimination and neglect from successive central governments, leaving it Myanmar’s poorest region. These grievances, combined with the coup and regime violence, led many young people to form resistance groups, commonly known as “defence forces”. They were initially armed with traditional flintlock hunting rifles, which they later upgraded into more modern assault rifles and other light arms. The Chin National Front began helping these newly-formed groups by providing basic military training at its Camp Victoria headquarters. The group subsequently ended its ceasefire and began expanding its own ranks as well as fighting alongside the post-coup resistance forces.
Thantlang town has seen some of the fiercest fighting in Chin State. In September 2021, the CNA and Chin Defence Force-Thantlang attacked a military base in the town, reportedly inflicting heavy casualties. The military responded with indiscriminate artillery fire in the town centre, causing fires to break out along the main street. Nearly all the town’s 10,000 residents fled. Troops then returned on several occasions over the following weeks, systematically burning down more of the deserted town, including homes, businesses and churches.
Three years on from the initial clashes, Crisis Group gained rare access to Thantlang town, as well as to villages and makeshift camps in the area, where many of the town’s residents sought refuge.
Much of the town now lies in ruins, dotted with craters from airstrikes and scarred by artillery fire and arson. More insidiously, hundreds of landmines laid by retreating regime forces lie unseen among the vegetation, including in a local school compound.
No civilians have been able to return to Thantlang. Although the CNA and allied defence forces have pushed the military out of most of the town, a number of troops are still holed up in three heavily fortified buildings. Resistance fighters conduct patrols on motorbikes, moving at high speed to reduce the risk of being hit by sniper fire. Even those parts of the town that have not been destroyed are being slowly reclaimed by vegetation.
CNA and allied fighters are billeted in a number of derelict buildings around the town.
A 76-year-old lady who fled Thantlang town sits in the doorway of a village house where she has been given refuge. “I am suffering from poor health”, she told Crisis Group. “I’m terrified that I am going to die here. I want to die in my own home”.
This couple’s house was completely destroyed. They fled with few possessions, and are now living in a disused administrative building far from Thantlang town.
Three years on, other displaced people are still living in makeshift shelters unsuited to the climate and unable to withstand heavy rain and wind.
Resistance forces now control all of the rural areas, which gives these locations a measure of security. The young man on duty at this checkpoint was relaxed, playing guitar. The nearby bunker showed little sign of use. Regime airstrikes, however, remain a risk.
Despite appearing peaceful, the community lives under the threat of a regime that deliberately targets civilian populations as part of the ongoing war.
The church sat unused, out of fear that it could be targeted by an airstrike as those in nearby villages have been. Instead, prayer services are held discreetly in some of the larger houses in the village like this one.
Religious buildings are not just collateral damage of the war. In many cases regime forces appear to have deliberately targeted them with air strikes or arson attacks – like the Johnson Memorial Baptist Church in Thantlang pictured above. Religious buildings are accorded special protection under international humanitarian law.
Regime forces first damaged the Baptist Church with artillery fire in September 2021. They later burned it down in May 2022. Human rights organisations have reported that the military destroyed at least 67 churches and five Buddhist monasteries between 2021 and 2023 in Chin State. Open-source analysts have done detailed verification of a number of these incidents.
The military also unleashed air and artillery strikes on Thantlang township hospital, virtually destroying it.
The CNF area commander surveys the damage at the hospital. As resistance forces have gradually retaken control of most of the town, there have been several armed clashes in and around the facility. Small arms fire has pockmarked the walls. Unexploded ordnance will make any future clearing of the site risky.
The intensity of the battle to retake the town is clear from the damage to other buildings as well. Retreating regime forces took over this former hotel and fortified it for use as a firing position. Bamboo spikes and planks studded with nails were hidden in the undergrowth to slow any assault on the building. Resistance forces, however, captured the building with the help of grenade launchers seized from regime troops elsewhere.
The CNA and its allies are now using the building as an observation post. The area commander points out a building still held by regime forces. Three such positions remain, but they are surrounded and running out of food and ammunition; a fourth was captured during Crisis Group’s visit to the town. The military has been attempting to resupply its beleaguered troops using airdrops, but most miss their target and end up in the hands of the resistance. The fall of the remaining regime positions appears imminent.
The CNA commander observes a second regime position from another side of the building. This position is closer, and he is careful to remain in the shadows.
The CNA also has a drone team based in the town, conducting both reconnaissance and offensive missions. They manufacture their own improvised drone-delivered munitions. Regime troops, however, have a jammer which currently limits the effectiveness of drone operations.
A day’s drive away, in a picturesque valley close to the Indian border, lies Camp Victoria, the headquarters of the Chin National Front and its CNA armed wing.
Here, new recruits are being put through their paces. After several weeks of basic training, they will join the ranks of the CNA or one of the local defence forces across Chin State.
A young girl, who is about to reach school age, looks through her front gate. The people of Chin State face a challenging future. The state seems close to freeing itself from the military regime’s control. But as long as the junta remains in power in Naypyitaw, the risk of air strikes will be ever present. There are also tensions between different Chin armed factions which could evolve into a more serious internal conflict. Even if the security situation can be stabilised, the task of rebuilding destroyed infrastructure, resettling displaced people and delivering social services will be enormous. In the meantime, very little aid is reaching the people of Chin State or those displaced across the border in India.
