Efe Bangkok
bangkok
Updated Thursday, April 4, 2024-12:17
Asia Civil war bleeds Burma three years after military coup
Burma Unseats Afghanistan as the king of opium after the Taliban bans cultivation
The forces opposing the military junta of Burma (formerly Myanmar) claim that they have managed
to attack with drones an air base and the headquarters
of the military regime in the country's capital,
Naypyidaw
, sowing doubt about the strength of the Army.
The Ministry of Defense of the self-proclaimed National Unity Government (NUG), made up of anti-junta politicians and activists after the coup d'état in February 2021, has confirmed the attack that occurred this Thursday against the A Lar air base, at one end of the international airport. in the southeast of the capital.
It has also been the headquarters of the State Administration Council, the formal name of the
military junta headed by General Min Aung Hlaing
.
The attack by the NUG, through its armed wing People's Defense Force (PDF),
would have caused deaths
, they say in a message published on the social network X, although the
reports have not been able to be
independently verified.
The opposition side, which presents itself as the legitimate Executive of Burma, does not provide more details about the offensive, which occurs just over a week after the Army celebrated Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw with more modest parades than usual. .
If the attack is confirmed, it would be a serious blow to the military junta, which has Naypyidaw, founded in 2008 under a former military regime, as its main stronghold.
As a result of the
offensive launched last October
by an alliance of ethnic guerrillas in the northeast of the country, the military junta has shown itself vulnerable and has been forced to
cede control
of more than
twenty towns
and
dozens of villages to the rebels.
military bases
throughout the country.
Faced with the apparent loss of troops, the military junta activated a military law in early February to recruit 60,000 civilians per year starting in April to fight in the ranks of the Army.
The coup of 2021
The 2021 military coup
ended 10 years of democratic transition
and opened a spiral of violence that has exacerbated the guerrilla war that the country has been experiencing for decades, with 4,830 dead and 20,000 detained at the hands of the regime forces, according to the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (AAPPB).
The Army justified the coup by
alleged massive fraud during the
November 2020 general elections, the result of which has been annulled and in which
Suu Kyi's party swept
, as it did in 2015, with the endorsement of international observers.
Suu Kyi, 78, was arrested in the first hours of the uprising and is currently serving
several prison sentences
for charges filed after the uprising.