The clashes took place at Gaw Ngu Yang near Nam Hka Village between the Burmese army's 88th Light Infantry Division and the KIA’s 27th Battalion, said a local resident named Maran Bawk who witnessed heavy gun fire on Tuesday, June 17th at Gaw Ngu Yang.

The next day, clashes continued in the same area for several hours—just as KIO representatives were sitting down with their counterparts from Burma’s government for a “Conflict Consultation Committee” meeting in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina, according to a Manwing-based KIA official named Zau Shan.

On Friday, June 20th more fighting erupted between the same opposing armed units at Pung Ling Village. That battled was then followed by further clashes at Dingga Bum on Sunday, June 22, according to Zau Shan.

Lamai Gum Ja, a member of the Myitkyina-based Kachin Peace Talk Creation, said that during last week’s “Conflict Consultation Committee” meeting the leader of the Burmese government delegation—Kachin State’s Minister of Border Affairs Col. Than Aung—told his KIO counterparts that the fighting broke out when government troops attempted to bring food rations to their front-line posts.

However, a KIA official based in Manwing named Zau Shan rejected Col. Than Aung’s explanation for the initial outbreak of last week’s clashes. Zau Shan said the fighting couldn’t possibly have been caused by Burmese troops supplying food to their front lines because the Burmese army doesn’t have military posts anywhere near the place where the clashes broke out last week.

There have been frequent skirmishes in Manwing between the two sides ever since the KIA’s 27th Battalion lost its main posts in the Manwing area following a fierce government offensive in April.

The KIO—one of only two armed ethnic groups that hasn’t signed a ceasefire with Burma’s new “civilian” government—has consistently questioned the government's commitment to peace talks with Burma’s armed ethnic groups in light of the ongoing conflict in Kachin State.