Overview

• The Three Brotherhood Alliance, an alignment of the Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, has initiated a coordinated offensive targeting military locations in northeastern Myanmar's Shan state near the China border.
• The Alliance's 'Operation 1027' seeks to safeguard civilian lives, maintain control over their territory, and respond to continued artillery attacks and air strikes by the Myanmar military government.
• The ongoing conflict involves a complex political backdrop, given the close relations both Myanmar's ruling generals and the rebel groups maintain with neighboring China, and the protection of Chinese-backed projects in contested territories.
• In towns across northern Shan state, rebel forces have seized military targets, checkpoints, border trade crossings, toll gates, and police stations, and there have been reports of numerous military casualties.
• The attacks, involving at least 15,000 fighters between the three rebel groups, have sparked widescale displacement, with hundreds of civilians fleeing to safer areas.