An alliance of armed groups in Myanmar has agreed to extend a ceasefire with the junta in northern Shan state after “pressure” from China, a leader of one of the groups said on Saturday.
The ceasefire, which was extended to July 31, comes after clashes saw its fighters seize territory from the military along a strategic highway to China.
The area has been rocked by fighting since late last month when the so-called Three Brotherhood Alliance renewed an offensive against junta troops along the road to China’s Yunnan province.
The alliance of ethnic minority armed groups — made up of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) — initially agreed to a four-day ceasefire from July 14-18.
A third member of the alliance, the Arakan Army, did not agree to the ceasefire.
“China put a lot of pressure on us to have a ceasefire immediately,” the leader from the TNLA, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
“Therefore, we have to do it as we can’t avoid it.”
But the leader warned that if junta troops launched offensives on the alliance’s troops or if they continued to bomb civilians during the ceasefire, they would “attack back.”
Fighting broke out in Myanmar after the military’s ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi‘s government in a coup in 2021.
The putsch sparked renewed fighting with ethnic minority armed groups, as well as with pro-democracy “People’s Defence Forces.”
The clashes in the Shan state since last month shredded a previous Beijing-brokered truce that in January halted an earlier push by the three groups.
The new agreement, however, does not cover the neighboring Mandalay region, where members of the alliance and other opponents of the military have been battling junta troops in recent weeks.
China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta, but analysts say it also maintains ties with armed ethnic groups in Myanmar that hold territory near its border.
Myanmar’s borderlands are home to myriad ethnic armed groups who have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.
Some have given shelter and training to newer “People’s Defence Forces” that have sprung up to battle the military after the coup in 2021.
AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment.