Lashio Residents Warned of Myanmar Junta Airstrike Threat as Talks Stumble

Residents of northern Shan State’s capital, Lashio, have been urged to stay alert for possible junta airstrikes following the reported collapse of three-day China-brokered peace talks between the regime and the powerful ethnic Kokang rebel army that liberated the city.

The peace talks held in Kunming in China’s Yunnan Province from March 22-24 ended in an impasse as junta representatives demanded the return of the whole of Lashio Township, while the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) merely proposed handing over some wards in Lashio city, according to a source close to the ethnic armed group’s central committee.