Myanmar’s army is facing battlefield challenges

8/12/2023 18:12

        Myanmar's military government has been freeing soldiers and police who had been jailed for desertion and absence without leave, seeking to get them to return to active duty.
        
        The releases follow an an amnesty plan announced earlier this week to get them back into service in order to ease an apparent manpower shortage.
        
        The plan was an apparent consequence of the military facing the greatest battlefield pressures since it seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. It began to encounter severe challenges after fierce fighting erupted in late October when an alliance of three ethnic minority armed groups launched an offensive in the northern part of Shan state, on the northeastern border with China.
        
        The offensive sparked renewed fighting nationwide on the part of both the pro-democracy Peoples Defense Force and their allies among other ethnic minority armed groups, spreading the military's forces thin and exposing an evident shortage of troops.