Nearly 30,000 civilians displaced by fighting in Myanmar’s heartland

Nearly 30,000 civilians in central Myanmar’s Sagaing and Magway regions were forced to flee their homes in February, residents and aid workers said Friday, as fighting between the military and rebel has increasingly spilled into the country’s heartland.

Until now, branches of the People’s Defense Force and ethnic rebels have largely been fighting junta troops in Myanmar’s remote border regions.

But rebel armies, emboldened by success on the country’s periphery, are moving beyond their traditional territory and causing the junta to lose ground on its home turf as the civil war enters its fourth full year.