The People’s Defence Force (PDF) and residents of Mogok Township in Mandalay Region told DVB on Monday that the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) has surrounded areas captured by the PDF with TNLA forces and artillery ahead of its scheduled withdrawal from the town and handover to regime forces by Nov. 29.
“The TNLA has aimed its artillery at [PDF] positions,” Soe Htay, a Mogok resident and pro-democracy activist, told DVB. He added that the TNLA controls the 88-mile (141 km) long road connecting Mogok to Pyin Oo Lwin Township, and that the PDF controls the 69-mile (111 km) long road between the Phawtaw junction in Mandalay Region to Momeik Township in northern Shan State.
Soe Htay said that the TNLA is set to escort regime forces through the Mogok-Pyin Oo Lwin road from Shan State’s Kyaukme Township, which was recaptured by regime forces from the TNLA on Oct. 1.
DVB contacted Lway Yay Oo, the TNLA spokesperson, for comment but has received no response. Mogok, 124 miles (200 km) north of Mandalay, is a source of revenue for both the regime and ethnic armed groups due to its lucrative ruby mining industry.
The TNLA agreed to hand over control of Mandalay’s Mogok, as well as Shan’s Momeik, as part of its China-brokered ceasefire deal with the regime in Naypyidaw reached on Oct. 29. Both towns were seized by TNLA-led resistance forces in July 2024.
Soe Htay told DVB that the National Unity Government (NUG) Ministry of Defence and Mandalay-based resistance forces tried to convince the TNLA not to return Mogok and Momeik to Naypyidaw control, but were unsuccessful.
A PDF member in Mogok told DVB on the condition of anonymity that losing control of the town would create “difficulties” for resistance forces as an unspecified number of them rely on the revenue generated from local mining operations.
He added that pressure from China on the two Brotherhood Alliance members, the TNLA and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), may also result in a reduced number of weapons going to the PDF.
The United Wa State Army (UWSA) said that it would no longer provide financial aid or weapons to any armed group in Myanmar, citing “China’s pressure,” following a meeting with the TNLA, the MNDAA, and the Shan State Progressive Party, (SSPP) in Pangsang, located 123 miles (198 km) east of Lashio, on Aug. 20.
The UWSA controls “Wa State,” an autonomous region which is composed of six townships, including the Wa Self-Administered Division, in northern and eastern Shan.
Mogok residents told DVB that they would like to see the NUG administer the town with the PDF providing security after the TNLA withdrawal rather than have regime forces on-the-ground controlling the town on behalf of Naypyidaw.
