Rebel group takes key Myanmar border town, rare earth mining hub

BANGKOK — 

A almighty rebel radical has seized a cardinal trading municipality successful northeastern Myanmar connected the Chinese border, taking power of a lucrative uncommon world mining hub successful different setback for the military-led government, according to witnesses.

The evident nonaccomplishment of Kanpaiti to the Kachin Independence Army leaves Myanmar's subject successful power of lone 1 municipality with a borderline crossing, Muse, and deprives it of imaginable profits from the mines that supply China with uncommon world minerals captious for electrical motors and upwind turbines, arsenic good arsenic high-tech weapons and a wide scope of electronics.

Neither Colonel Naw Bu, the KIA's spokesperson, nor Thet Swe, spokesperson for the military, responded to aggregate requests for comment, but respective section media outlets reported that Kanpaiti fell past week. The ongoing civilian warfare and subject restrictions marque question for journalists astir impossible, but the reports were confirmed by witnesses by telephone.

Video clips circulating connected societal media, which could not beryllium independently verified, showed what was said to beryllium a KIA subordinate raising the group's emblem astatine the passageway done the upland to China. Other clips showed a immense quantity of weapons allegedly captured by the KIA.

The subject seized powerfulness from the elected authorities of Aung San Suu Kyi successful February 2021, triggering intensified warring with long-established equipped militias organized by Myanmar's taste number groups successful its borderline regions, which person struggled for decades for much autonomy.

The once-mighty equipped forces, known arsenic the Tatmadaw, person suffered a bid of unprecedented defeats implicit the past year, particularly successful areas to the eastbound adjacent the Chinese borderline and successful the occidental authorities of Rakhine, aft an confederation of 3 almighty militias launched a coordinated violative connected Oct. 27, 2023.

Since then, different militias organized on taste lines person joined in, including the KIA successful the bluish authorities of Kachin.

In Kachin's alleged Special Region 1, wherever Kanpaiti is located, the KIA since precocious September has been expanding assaults connected a rival taste militia, the New Democratic Army-Kachin, which is allied with the authorities subject and had provided borderline defender forces.

The NDA-K besides controlled the web of small, unlicensed operations wherever dense uncommon world elements are mined, past sold straight to China's large state-owned mining conglomerates oregon done intermediaries.

There are much than 300 unregulated mines successful the area, producing astir of the $1.4 cardinal successful uncommon earths for merchantability to China past twelvemonth "at a unspeakable outgo to the situation and section communities," according to a study issued by London-based biology radical Global Witness successful May.