Myanmar alliance says it agreed to 4-day ceasefire with military in Shan state

YANGON – An alliance of Myanmar ethnic minority armed groups said on July 14 it had agreed to a four-day ceasefire with the junta in northern Shan state, following weeks of clashes in which it seized territory from the military along a key highway to China.

“We... showed cooperation with China by agreeing to a four-day ceasefire in Northern Shan,” Major-General Tar Bhone Kyaw of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), one of the members of the alliance, told AFP.

The ceasefire was slated to take place between July 14 and July 18.

Northern Shan state has been

rocked by fighting since late June 2024,

when the so-called Three Brotherhood Alliance renewed an offensive against the military along the road to China’s Yunnan province.

The clashes shredded a previous

Beijing-brokered truce that in January 2024

halted an offensive by the alliance, which is made up of the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the TNLA.

The new four-day agreement did not cover the neighbouring Mandalay region, where members of the alliance and other opponents of the military have been battling junta troops in recent weeks, Maj-Gen Tar Bhone Kyaw said.

AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment. AFP