The NUG claims to control more than half of Myanmar's territory
The anti-junta National Unity Government (NUG) has claimed more than half of Myanmar's territory. The NUG says fighters from its loyalist People's Defense Forces, or PDF, and allies, the Ethnic Revolutionary Organization (ERO), have been battling the junta's forces for the past year. More than half of the territory was managed to be taken under control.
NUG Acting President Dua Lashi La spoke on the one-year anniversary of the declaration of a 'people's resistance war' against the military junta in Myanmar last week.
He also said that the junta government has lost control of more than half of the country in the face of the resistance of PDF and ERO fighters in the last one year.
However, at the same time, General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the ruling junta government in Myanmar, claimed that the conflict situation that arose across the country after the pro-democracy leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, was deposed and imprisoned in a military coup, is now under control.
"The situation in Myanmar is slowly coming under control," Hlaing said in an interview with Russia's state news agency Ria Novosti during his visit to Russia last week.
He also said that Myanmar will hold general elections in August next year and the army will try its best to make those elections successful.
On February 1, 2021, the military seized power in Myanmar by ousting the government led by Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi through a coup. Myanmar's army chief Min Aung Hlaing led the coup. Soon after the coup, Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and taken to an undisclosed location and charged with corruption.
Aung San Suu Kyi is currently on trial in a special court in the capital of Myanmar, Nay Pyi Taw. The court has also announced the verdict by announcing his sentence in some cases.
Since the coup, the pro-democracy forces and the general public started peaceful protests in the country. In the first phase, batons, water cannons and rubber bullets were used to suppress the protests, but at one point the junta ordered the security forces to use lethal weapons.
According to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP), an organization that provides legal assistance to political prisoners in the country, more than 2,000 people have been killed and at least 10,000 protesters have been imprisoned across Myanmar by security forces in the past year and a half.
Meanwhile, various pro-democracy forces also started organizing themselves after the security forces started using lethal weapons to quell the peaceful protests. In the middle of last year, a shadow government called the National Unity Government was formed in Myanmar, which is basically a coalition of various pro-democracy parties and anti-junta armed groups active in the country.
junta forces and rebel armed groups. Hundreds of people left their homes and took shelter in temples and churches. But the junta troops are firing there too. Several civilians including children have died. Myanmar media reported this.
According to Myanmar media Irrawaddy, clashes between rebel armed groups and junta forces are ongoing in Myanmar's Shan, Chin and Rakhine provinces. Myanmar forces are shelling in different places. Hundreds of civilians left their homes in fear and took refuge in temples and churches.
Myanmar troops bombed a temple in Mobai area of southern Shan province on Friday morning (September 16). At least four refugee civilians including two children were killed. Fighting continues in the region between the Karen National Liberation Army and the Karen National Defense Force and the junta forces.
In this situation, Myanmar's anti-junta armed groups are going to unite against the junta forces. Meanwhile, the top leaders of Rakhine State's armed insurgent group Arakan Army and Wa State's United Wa State Army have met.
