Myanmar fighters agree China-brokered pullout from ruby town

One of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed opposition factions has agreed to a China-brokered withdrawal from a lucrative ruby mining hub, the group said on Wednesday.

Myanmar has been mired in a civil war since the military grabbed power in a 2021 coup, with the junta fighting an array of pro-democracy guerrillas and powerful ethnic minority armed groups.

The ragtag opposition initially struggled to make headway before organising a combined offensive in late 2023 that seized huge swaths of territory.

The northern ruby-mining town of Mogok was captured by rebels last summer, but the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) — the most powerful group driving that offensive — said it will now pull out.

The TNLA said in a statement on Telegram it had made a deal with the junta after two days of talks that ended on Tuesday, overseen by a Chinese special envoy in the city of Kunming in southern China.

According to the deal, the group will pull out of the townships of Mogok and neighbouring Momeik.

The statement did not specify a timeframe but said the military had agreed to call off air strikes, while “troops from both sides will stop advancing” from midnight on Wednesday.

A Myanmar junta spokesman could not be reached for comment.

China is a key power broker in Myanmar’s civil war, analysts say, supporting both opposition groups and the junta on a sliding scale according to its economic and security interests.

Some conflict monitors say the offensive during which Mogok was captured had at least Beijing’s tacit backing, as China grew weary of the junta’s inaction over internet scam centres that seed chaos along their border.

However, China has more openly backed the junta this year as it battles to regain ground ahead of an election scheduled to start in December, which it is touting as a path to stability.

The polls are set to be blocked from vast rebel-held enclaves, and numerous international monitors have dismissed them as a ploy to disguise continuing military rule.

However, Beijing has given its backing in diplomatic rhetoric and on the ground.

The northern city of Lashio — the junta’s most significant territorial loss since the start of the civil war — was handed back to the military in April after Chinese mediation.