The Sagaing Federal Unit Hluttaw (SFUH) elected Soe Oo, the National League for Democracy (NLD) member of parliament for Sagaing Township No. 1 in the Sagaing Region Hluttaw from 2020-21, as Prime Minister of the Sagaing Federal Unit Interim Government on Monday.
Myint Htwe and Phyu Phyu Win, two other NLD members of parliament ousted in the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, were elected as chairperson and vice-chairperson of the SFUH during its 6th regular session on Nov. 17.
“This is the first bottom-up process in the region, so everyone needs to help and support it,” Kyaw Wai Phyo, the president of the Federation of Sagaing Forum, told DVB.
He added that the Federation of the Sagaing Forum is a coordination body working alongside the SFUH to establish a federal democratic Sagaing Region “to advance the revolution.”
The SFUH 6th regular session was attended by National Unity Government (NUG) officials, including Prime Minister Mahn Winn Khaing Thann, and members of the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), including Toe Kyaw Hlaing.
SFUH interim Prime Minister Soe Oo previously served as the Minister of Planning and Finance in the Sagaing Region government from 2015-2020.
Myint Htwe and Phyu Phyu Win were first elected in 2015 and re-elected in the 2020 general elections, representing the NLD in Ye-U Township Constituency No. 2 and Kawlin Township Constituency No. 1 in the Sagaing Region Hluttaw.
In Karenni State, resistance groups established the Karenni Interim Executive Council (IEC) in June 2023 as its provisional government. It receives support from the NUCC and NUG.
In Chinland, the Chin National Front (CNF) established the Chinland Council in December 2023 after it split from the Interim Chin National Consultative Council (ICNCC), which also receives support from the NUCC and NUG.
The Chinland Council, led by the CNF, and the ICNCC agreed to merge both factions of the Chin resistance movement at a meeting in Mizoram State earlier this year.
Kyaw Wai Phyo told DVB that the SFUH is following these two models of bottom-up federalism. But unlike the Karenni IEC and the Chinland Council, he foresees challenges over power-sharing with the NUG.
The SFUH adopted its Interim Constitution in October 2024 but faced criticism from Human Rights Myanmar, a group of human rights experts, for including vague wording and lacking “civil and political rights.”
Sagaing Region is Myanmar’s second largest geographically after Shan State. It has faced non-stop conflict since the armed uprising to the 2021 coup began.
Fighting between the NUG armed wing, the People’s Defense Force (PDF), and regime forces continues across multiple townships, including the region’s capital Monywa, Sagaing, Taze, Ye-U, Tabayin, Budalin, Kani, Yinmarbin, Pale, Salingyi, Chaung-U, Myaung, Banmauk, Indaw, Kawlin, Pinlebu, Kale, Tamu, and Katha.
At least 432 people have been killed in a total of 294 airstrikes in Sagaing Region since March 28. Over 1,527 people have been killed and 3,462 have been injured by airstrikes nationwide since then, according to DVB data.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project has documented at least 80,000 killed in Myanmar since 2021.
The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) identified Sagaing as having Myanmar’s highest rate of conflict-related displacement, with an estimated 1.25 million people—roughly 35 percent of the country’s total displaced population—having fled their homes.
Indaw, Pinlebu, Khampat, Maw Luu, Shwe Pyi Aye, and Myothit have been seized by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) along with its allied PDF since 2021, according to DVB data.
These are among the 103 towns across Myanmar that have come under the control of resistance forces since the regime seized power during the 2021 coup that overturned a decade of the country’s democratic transition led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD.
Founded in 1988, the NLD first won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election but the military regime at the time refused to recognize the results and jailed its members.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest in 2010, won a parliamentary seat in the 2012 by-elections. She led the NLD to another landslide victory in the 2015 general elections. She repeated this as NLD leader with an even larger mandate from the 2020 general elections.
Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were arrested during the coup on Feb. 1, 2021. The two democratic leaders have been held incommunicado by the regime which seized power after the coup.
The NLD was disbanded by the regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC) for not re-registering in March 2023. Following the coup, NLD members have been targeted with arrest, forcing them to either go underground or in exile to avoid the regime authorities.
