YANGON – Ethnic armed groups in Myanmar seized a handful of outposts on Saturday as they pressed their offensive against the junta in the north of the country, according to local media reports.

Fighting has ramped up across vast swathes of northern Shan state near the Chinese border, forcing more than 23,000 people from their homes, the United Nations has said.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army say they have captured dozens of outposts and four towns and blocked vital trade routes to China.

Local media reports said TNLA fighters on Saturday seized two outposts controlled by pro-military militia near Lashio, the largest town in northern Shan state and home to the military’s north-eastern command.

The MNDAA said it seized three military outposts farther to the east.

The junta has yet to comment on Saturday’s clashes, but on Thursday, a spokesman for the military dismissed as “propaganda” claims that the alliance has captured several towns in Shan.

The junta on Saturday said the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), another ethnic armed group based in neighbouring Kachin state, joined the attacks on its forces, and that it would retaliate.

Local media reported that the junta shelled the remote town of Laiza on the Chinese border, home to the KIA’s headquarters.

AFP journalists were stopped on Saturday in China’s Yunnan province at a permanent police checkpoint about 50km up the valley from the border crossing of Chinshwehaw, which the Myanmar military said on Wednesday it has lost control over.

Chinese police said only people living beyond the checkpoint or others who have gained special authorisation could pass through the crossing now, owing to recent security concerns about ongoing clashes occurring across the border.

“We’re now in special circumstances,” an officer said. “Unless necessary, no one can go in.”

China called on Thursday for an immediate ceasefire in Shan state – part of a planned billion-dollar rail route in its Belt and Road infrastructure project.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to more than a dozen ethnic armed groups, some of which have fought the military for decades over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

There are also turf wars with pro-military militia over criminal enterprises ranging from drug smuggling and casinos to prostitution and cyberscams. AFP