A plan to form the People's Defence Force (PDF) under the wing of the National Unity Government (NUG), will be an army drawn from ethnic groups and all citizens, according to Dr. Too Khaung, Union Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation.

In its statement on May 5th, the NUG said it is forming the People's Defence Force to root out the Tatmadaw which has seized power and engaged in widespread killing. The NUG established the PDF as the forerunner essence of a Federal Democratic Armed Forces.

Youth who have a desire to oppose the injustice can join the PDF of their own free will. The PDF has been formed to gather together the youth who have decided to root out the military dictatorship by undergoing military training in the respective liberation areas controlled by ethnic armies.

However, the statement has not made clear the relationship between the planned PDF and the long-existing EAOs that have been fighting the Myanmar army for the past 60 years.

The Karen National Union (KNU) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have been leading the armed struggle in support of the anti-coup movement, and have also embraced the NUG and its commitment to a federal democratic Myanmar.

Currently, the KIA and the KNU are staging offensives against the junta’s troops. The KIA captured some military camps in Kachin State and the KNU, in Karen State.