The Chin Brotherhood Alliance (CBA) has been fighting with the junta since 9 November 2024, as it tries to take control of Mindat and Falam towns in Chin State.
According to a CBA spokesperson, Ko Yaw Mang, the fighting was still ongoing 10 days later, on 19 November, the day of reporting.
Ko Yaw Mang said: "Clashes are raging day and night in Mindat and Falam, with intense fighting ongoing daily, since it began on 9 November. The junta has carried out relentless airstrikes and artillery bombardments, and there have been continuous cases of houses being set on fire.”
At an ‘Emergency Fundraising Event for the Chin Brotherhood’ held on 19 November he explained that the CBA launched simultaneous attacks on junta bases and outposts in Mindat and Falam towns on 9 November, as part of Operation Chin Brotherhood. Since then the fighting had been intense at all times of day and night.
But, he did not give any further details, just saying: "We have already achieved several military victories, but for security reasons, we plan to announce this good news only at an appropriate time. We have secured victories in both Falam and Mindat, and the CBA will reveal them step by step.”
Previously, Infantry Battalion 274 (IB-274) was the junta’s only major military unit stationed in Mindat Town. But now, the junta has sent a colonel to the area to oversee the junta operations there. He is currently based in Mindat Town but he is also in charge of military operations in Kanpetlet Town in Chin State and the Magway Region towns of Saw, Kyaukhtu, and Htilin (Tilin).
During the ongoing fighting to take Mindat and Falam towns the junta has escalated the number of airstrikes it is carrying out and junta soldiers have been setting fire to houses in Mindat Town.
Chin resistance forces believe that if they can take Mindat Town it would make it much easier to capture the nearby towns of Kanpetlet, Saw, Kyaukhtu, and Htilin, where the junta has less of a military presence than it does in Mindat Town.
The CBA will prioritise efforts to make all of Chin State junta-free, according to some of its member organisations who also said that after achieving this, the CBA plans to strengthen and support the anti-junta resistance forces in Anyar, the central dry zone of Myanmar.
Currently, the Arakan Army (AA) and two Anyar-based resistance groups, the Burma National Revolutionary Army (BNRA) and the Generation Z Army (GZA), are fighting alongside the CBA in Operation Chin Brotherhood.
The CBA is a coalition of the following six resistance forces: the Chin National Organisation/Chin National Defence Force (CNO/CNDF), Mindat Chinland Defence Force (CDF), Kanpetlet CDF, Matupi CDF, Maraland Defence Force, and the Zoland Zomi Federal Union/People's Defence Force (Zoland ZFU/PDF).
