Burma Coup Resistance Notes April 12, 2025
Resistance forces liberate towns in Chin & Sagaing; PDFs target junta weapons factories; the regime continues blocking earthquake aid, & massacres quake victims near a hospital.
Any thoughts of a post-earthquake ceasefire were forgotten this week as the junta continued its attacks, and resistance forces responded by dealing it devastating defeats in 2 regions.
Ethnic homeland armies - Chin----------------------
Chin defense forces finally succeeded in their months-long quest to overcome the last junta battalion in Falam town in northern Chin State. They had blocked water supplies to the remaining camp, junta Battalion 268. On April 7 they stormed the hilltop, capturing an enormous amount of weapons and ammunition. Many hundreds of weapons were captured, as were drone jammers, helmets, and other equipment. Some fugitive junta troops are now being hunted. The Chin-led forces have suffered heavy losses and key commanders during the struggle, including 22 Chin and PDF soldiers killed April 7 and dozens more wounded. The junta is now left with only Hakha, Thantlang, and Tedim towns left in Chin State. (Mizzima, Than Lwin Khet News 4/7, People’s Spring 4/9)
Kachin----------------------
The Kachin army and allied PDFs finally overcame the last remaining junta resistance in Indaw town in northern Sagaing Region on April 7. The enemy had been hiding out in a WWII-era Japanese tunnel bunker. At least 160 were taken prisoner including the top officer of the junta’s 77th Division, Big. Gen. Aung Thet Oo. Resistance forces captured 120mm mortars (the largest) and 122mm howitzer artillery as well as at least 40 other weapons. The town and the entire township are now completely liberated. Most of Indaw had already been freed in August 2024, but the battle dragged on for 7 months. After the battle the junta carried out numerous airstrikes. (Khit Thit Media, Chindwin News Agency 4/8, People’s Spring 4/10, The Irrawaddy B 4/11)
Indaw is on the road from central Burma to the Kachin capital Myitkyina, which is still occupied by the enemy. This sets up a potential blockade against junta resupply of its forces there. (DVB E 4/9)
These instances show that progress may be slow at times, but resistance forces are persistent, and quiescent periods are punctuated by breakthroughs like these.
Kawthoolei----------------------
The Karen army Brigade 7 attacked another in a series of enemy camps near the Thai border. On April 10 Karen commandos infiltrated a junta base at Shan Ywa Thit in Lu Pleh Township of Pa’an District, because it had been a base for junta drone attacks. The junta troops there were either killed or fled, except for a few who had defected to the Karen before the attack. (Salween Press 4/10)
Also in Kawthoolei, a Karen PDF blasted 5 junta police who were extorting travelers at a road checkpoint in Kawthaung Township, Beit-Tavoy District on April 9, killing 3 of them and wounding 1, and capturing their weapons. (Khit Thit Media 4/10)
Arakan----------------------
Fighting was fierce around the junta’s 2 main remaining toeholds in Arakan State, Sittwe and Kyaukphyu. On April 9 about 24 junta troops were killed in Kyaukphyu. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 4/10)
A junta counter-offensive to try to regain the lost base at Nyaungjo in western Bago Region from the Arakan Army failed this week, and the troops had to retreat. They then set up a new defensive line at a camp further back, at Shaw Phyu. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 4/7)
A Major in the junta army was killed in action in Tanai Township of Kachin State on April 2 and buried at the front line. He had wanted to leave the military after the coup, but didn’t because the junta was holding his family hostage. (Khit Thit Media 4/8)
The Kachin and Ta’ang armies began negotiations over control of disputed areas of northwest Shan State, such as Kutkai, Nammatu, Namkham, and Mandon towns. Hostilities have broken out on several occasions between these forces in areas liberated from the Burma junta, but the Kachin and Ta’ang governments want to settle the disputes by discussions. (Maung Media 4/9)
People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)----------------------
PDFs made a strategic strike on a power plant in Magway Region that supplies 3 of the junta’s weapons factories and the air force HQ. Multiple truckloads of PDF soldiers used rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, and automatic rifles for 4 hours to attack the power plant in Salin town on March 31, though the extent of the damage wasn’t known until April 7. Resistance forces say the power plant is 80% damaged by the attack, with many transformers ruined, and it stopped operating. They said the damage can be repaired but not quickly. The regime itself said 30 junta troops died along with 2 power plant operators. It then bombed nearby civilians. One of the affected factories produces bombs for aircraft. (Mizzima 4/7)
In Yangon Region, a PDF called Urban Special Operation attacked a junta small weapons factory and burned a military food and ammunition depot in Taikgyi Township on April 4. The PDFs used locally-manufactured long range missiles to destroy the factory and kill 5 troops/workers and injure 16 more. (People’s Spring 4/8)
A PDF attack on a weapons factory in Pauk Township of Magway Region on April 3 and 4 killed 7 junta troops including a platoon commander and a deputy commander. The PDF used 3 remotely-detonated explosives. Sixteen troops were wounded, including some amputees. There is no word on damage to the factory. (Maung News 4/8)
A Major in the junta military was attacked and killed by an urban resistance group in Yangon on April 6, (Ayeyarwaddy Times 4/6) and another one was killed by PDFs while traveling in a car in Pakokku Township of Magway Region on April 10. (Mizzima 4/11)
During March 2025, 61 junta troops defected to the resistance forces, and 62 were captured alive. Fifty-three of the defectors were recent forced recruits, never interested in fighting for the regime. The figure for February was 64 defectors, according to the National Unity Government. (Karenni People’s Voice 4/7)
Terrorism----------------------
Jets bombed a crowded area near a hospital in earthquake-devastated Wuntho Township of Sagaing Region on April 9, killing 26 civilians and injuring 22, according to the National Unity Government. Many were waiting for treatment for quake-related injuries, and there were children among the victims. (The Irrawaddy B 4/10, Myanmar Now, Maung News 4/11)
After the liberation of Falam town, junta jets heavily bombed other towns in Chin State on April 9, including Mindat and Tedim, killing at least 12 civilians. (Myanmar Now 4/10)
The National Unity Government announced on April 9 that 72 civilians had been killed in junta attacks since the earthquake. (Than Lwin Times 4/10)
Earthquake aftermath----------------------
A local revolutionary group called the Protest Force of Sagaing Region managed to raise the equivalent of US$130,000 and distribute it to people left homeless and/or without their livelihoods in the most heavily affected part of Burma. In Ta’ang State, local civil society organizations contributed around US$50,000 to earthquake relief. (Local sources 4/9, 4/10) Much of Sagaing Region and northern Shan are under resistance control, and international organizations cannot work there, only local ones.
As teams from China, India, Singapore, Australia, Japan, and elsewhere converged on Burma to assist earthquake victims, one group that was not providing help was the Burma military cartel that reigns in the worst-affected areas. Far from dispensing aid and rescuing victims, the junta is restricting access by aid groups, especially local ones, and diverting the available assistance to its military capital. (Mizzima E 4/7) The junta is demanding that any groups offering aid register with it and get each activity approved. That enables the regime to seize and divert aid. Some of that aid is in the form of heavy equipment for digging through rubble. (Myanmar Now E 4/7)
Donors are reluctant to ship bulk and non-perishable foods that can be diverted and stolen by the junta, so they have emphasized delivery of cooked meals directly to quake-displaced people. The junta responded by banning such deliveries, claiming public health concerns, and says it wants only bulk dry rice, oil, beans, etc. (Maung News 4/7)
Junta troops and their Phyu Saw Htee terrorist adjuncts are still blocking aid groups from accessing the worst-hit location, Sagaing town, which was almost on top of the quake epicenter and is 90% destroyed. (Khit Thit Media 4/7)
The quake damaged the junta’s data and cyber-surveillance centers in Naypyitaw, reducing, at least temporarily, its ability to stalk and punish citizens expressing anti-dictatorship sentiments online. Staff residence buildings also collapsed. (Mizzima 4/6) Dictator Min Aung Hlaing announced that the construction contract to rebuild junta buildings will go to one of his cronies, Tha Aung Pyae Sone. (Khit Thit Media 4/11)
As reported earlier, America’s earthquake response stood out for its slowness and meager amount in comparison to other large and small countries. Then, when the tiny 3-person American “assessment team” finally arrived in Burma, the Trump administration fired them in mid-mission on April 5, as part of its larger dismantling of the American government. The three were in Mandalay at the time, having traveled from Washington DC, Bangkok, and Manila. (New York Times 4/6) American foreign minister Marco Rubio again suggested that people in crises such as this earthquake should rely on other countries for help rather than the USA.
A private American group called Samaritan’s Purse arrived and set up a pop-up surgery unit, but they did it in the junta capital Naypyitaw rather than in Sagaing or Mandalay where the need is greatest. Dictator Min Aung Hlaing made a brief excursion to take propaganda photos at the temporary missionary hospital, while still not allowing indigenous hospitals to reopen in quake-devastated Mandalay because they hired staff who boycotted the regime’s hospitals. (Myanmar Now 4/9) The American surgeons and nurses join medical missions from India and Russia that arrived previously. Meanwhile Australia and Japan landed cargo planes full of earthquake relief supplies.
At least one Burmese news analysis is saying China’s rapid and generous response to the earthquake is paying big dividends in a public opinion shift in favor of China. Previously, China had been extremely unpopular due to its strong-arm neocolonial investment and support of the hated military regime. Seeing Chinese rescuers pulling survivors from rubble and providing medical and humanitarian assistance has softened that attitude, however, according to the analysis. (The Irrawaddy B 4/5 https://burma.irrawaddy.com/article/2025/04/05/399575.html) Burma had been relatively pro-Western and anti-Chinese before the disappearance of USAID and the earthquake response.
Despite calls to resign due to corruption and conflict of interest, UN Special Envoy for Myanmar Julie Bishop landed in Naypyitaw on April 9 and legitimized the illegal military cartel with a meeting and photo-op. The regime promptly published the photos on its propaganda outlets. Bishop, an Australian, has close business dealings with Chinese companies doing business with the Burma regime, and she lost the confidence of Burma’s pro-democracy groups. (Myanmar Now 4/10)
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-စီၤထံဆၢ
