AFP :
Red flags flutter over bullet-scarred buildings in the strategic Myanmar city of Lashio, which an ethnic minority group linked to China seized from the military in its biggest defeat for decades.
Lashio is the largest urban centre to fall to any of Myanmar’s myriad ethnic minority groups — who have been fighting the central authorities on and off for decades — since the military first seized power in 1962.
But analysts say the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) will struggle to govern Lashio, which straddles a key trade route to China and normally has a population of 150,000.
Most fled the weeks of fighting that culminated in the city’s capture last month, and those who remain fear a return to the bloody violence.
Residents and rescue groups say dozens of civilians were killed or wounded as the military pounded the town with air strikes and both sides launched rockets and shells at each other.
While the fighting has eased since August, junta planes are still flying sorties and conducting air strikes, including on Monday and Tuesday night.
“We cannot say Lashio is back to normal but everyone is trying to act like it’s normal,” real estate agent Soe Soe, 30, told AFP.
She fled in July but returned after the MNDAA took over and said she will stay, even as smaller clashes continue in the vicinity.
“The situation is uncertain right now,” she added. “Everyone is afraid.” The MNDAA was part of a trio of ethnic groups that launched a coordinated offensive against the junta — which ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in 2021 — a year ago, taking it by surprise and seizing swathes of Shan state.
Junta jets are still pounding the city and targets have included hospitals and administrative buildings, according to the US Institute of Peace’s Myanmar programme chief Jason Tower.