Fierce fighting between Myanmar regime and Chin resistance forces continued on Monday across Kanpetlet Township in southern Chin State and neighboring Htilin Township in Magway Region, as the military presses an aggressive counteroffensive aimed at severing critical supply arteries linking central Myanmar to liberated territories in Chin and Arakan states.
Residents in Kyindwe town confirmed that intense fighting persisted in Kanpetlet on Monday. The mountain township, located 189 miles (304 km) south of the Chin State capital Hakha, has been under the administration of the Chin Brotherhood alliance since it was seized in December 2024.
Simultaneously, heavy clashes broke out in Shweaungtha village in Magway Region’s Htilin Township on Nov. 2, according to a local resistance fighter speaking on condition of anonymity.
Htilin sits along the strategic Magway-Chin transit corridor, roughly 179 miles (288 km) northwest of Magway city.
Zin Yaw, a military defector who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) following the 2021 coup, said that the regime’s multi-pronged push along the Magway-Chin highway is explicitly designed to cut off cross-border logistics lines.
The southern Chin operation escalated sharply on Sept. 20 when a massive convoy of roughly 200 military vehicles arrived at the Directorate of Defence Industries (DDI) 25 facility in Saw Township’s Laung She town, Magway Region, located just east of Kanpetlet.
Resistance forces have been engaged across multiple fronts since the initial counteroffensive columns reached Kanpetlet, Mindat, Kyindwe, and Htilin in mid-May. Mindat, which fell to the Chin Brotherhood alongside Kanpetlet in December 2024, remains a primary regime objective.
The logistics choke point carries high stakes for western Myanmar.
The Arakan Army (AA)—an ally of the Chin Brotherhood—has seized 14 of Arakan State’s 17 townships as well as Chin State’s strategic Paletwa Township since November 2023.
With the regime enforcing total maritime, riverine, and road blockades into Arakan, hundreds of thousands of civilians have survived almost exclusively on food, fuel, and medical supplies imported overland from India through transit corridors running across Chin State.
The battlefield push coincides with shifting territorial fortunes across northern Chin State, where regime forces recaptured Falam from the Chin Brotherhood on April 25 and retook Tonzang from the Chin National Army (CNA) on May 20.
The regime also retains control of Hakha and maintains garrison presences in contested sections of Thantlang and Tedim. In the south, the Chin Brotherhood maintains control over Mindat, Kanpetlet, and Matupi.
Against this contested backdrop, rival Chin resistance factions are attempting to consolidate political and military command.
Following a historic split in late 2023—when the CNA and its political wing, the Chin National Front (CNF), withdrew from the Interim Chin National Consultative Council (ICNCC) to form the Chinland Council—the two sides met in Aizawl, Mizoram, on Oct. 16–17.
Salai Khua Uk Lian, an executive committee member of the CNF, confirmed to DVB that the factions have agreed to scrap divergent governance structures, draft a single joint constitution, and unite under an all-inclusive governing authority provisionally named the Chin National Council.
