The Myanmar military and the Kokang National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) have held talks in recent days, brokered by China, to hand over Sinni township in northern Shan State, which is controlled by the Kokang National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), a BBC source has said.
The talks are understood to have taken place in recent weeks, and “we can say that the talks failed because the Kokang is not willing to hand them back,” he said.
The source explained that the agreement was not reached because the military refused to accept the demand to withdraw from Sinni township.
Since the military took back Lashio, the MNDAA has held two rounds of talks under Chinese pressure to hand over Sinni, the first at the Two Elephants Hotel in Lashio, he said.
“The last time they held talks was somewhere in the village of Ho Beik,” he said.
Meanwhile, tensions between the military and the MNDAA have escalated since the failed talks, with some residents saying both the military, which controls the city, and the Kokang Army, which controls the outskirts, are building up their forces.
The military is also building up reinforcements at the 41st Infantry Battalion (KAL) in the Northeastern Regional Command (NRC) in Lashio, a military source said.
The Kokang Army and allied forces captured Sinni in January 2024.
The military has not yet released any information about the Chinese-led talks in northern Shan.