For 15 years they were sworn enemies, their fighting pitting renegade Shan against government supporter. But last month the Shan State Army-South publicly cemented an alliance with their northern counterparts and announced that from hereon there is only one Shan army. The alliance strengthens the decades-old insurgency in Burma’s east in the face of intensifying warfare – the government is attempting to rout armed ethnic groups, but it now faces an uphill as two once disparate forces pledge to fight together.