YANGON, Myanmar — 20 May 2026, Myanmar’s military recaptured the Thai border trading town of Mawtaung on Tuesday after a two-week offensive, resistance forces confirmed, with at least 4,000 civilians displaced amid the fighting.
Myanmar’s military regime announced Wednesday that it had retaken the border trading town of Mawtaung in Tanintharyi Region, concluding a 15-day counteroffensive against Karen resistance forces that displaced thousands of civilians and shuttered the town’s cross-border trade gate.
The Karen National Union (KNU), whose armed wing had held the town since November, confirmed the loss. Padoh Saw Ehna Doh, secretary of the KNU-administered Myeik District, told The Irrawaddy the resistance had ceded control of Mawtaung on Tuesday.
The junta’s state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said the retaking of the town followed more than 200 “major and minor clashes” and claimed at least 24 resistance fighters were killed. It acknowledged that some military members “also heroically sacrificed their lives,” without providing a figure. Regime forces backed the offensive with artillery and airstrikes, according to The Irrawaddy, and a source close to the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) told the Democratic Voice of Burma the resistance withdrew because of the junta’s overwhelming firepower.
Local media reported the counteroffensive was triggered after a convoy of 50 trucks carrying military reinforcements was dispatched to Thebyu village, some 41 kilometres from Mawtaung, before three columns were deployed to encircle the town.
Aid volunteers told The Irrawaddy that at least 4,000 residents of Mawtaung and nine surrounding villages had fled their homes amid the fighting.
The Myeik-Mawtaung border road, which traders use to move goods into Thailand’s Prachuap Khiri Khan Province via Thailand’s Singkhon checkpoint, had already been closed since the KNLA captured the town in November.
**A Minor Gate, But a Meaningful Symbol**
A Small Crossing in a Big Fight
Mawtaung is not Myanmar’s largest border crossing. Official statistics show it transited around US$26.7 million in freight during the 2023-2024 financial year — modest compared to the billion-dollar flows through Myawaddy further north. Opened as a formal trade hub in May 2013 under the Thein Sein government, the crossing handles seafood exports from Myeik on the Andaman coast as well as Thai imports of cement, motorcycles, and fruit.
The town carries deeper symbolic weight for the KNU: the area housed the organisation’s Myeik District headquarters until the junta’s predecessor government seized it in 1990. It fell to KNLA-led resistance forces on November 14 last year, and its loss now represents one of several reversals for the resistance in the south.
Ye Win Oo’s Offensive Momentum
The recapture of Mawtaung fits a pattern that has shifted the military’s fortunes considerably since late March, when General Ye Win Oo replaced the previous commander-in-chief — a change that also freed coup leader Min Aung Hlaing to assume the presidency.
Under Ye Win Oo’s command, the regime has retaken at least five towns in as many weeks: Mawtaung in Tanintharyi, Falam and Tonzang in Chin State, and Indaw and Maw Luu in Sagaing Region.
The broader turnaround for the military has been aided by geopolitical shifts. Two key ethnic armies — the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Shan State Army-North — signed Beijing-brokered ceasefires earlier this year, withdrawing from a coalition that had inflicted serious losses on the junta in 2023. Their exit left pro-democracy People’s Defence Force units more exposed, facing the military with fewer allies and lighter arms.
Resistance Signals Continued Fight
KNU officials have not publicly declared an end to operations in the Mawtaung area. The loss echoes a pattern seen elsewhere in the conflict: the resistance captures territory, the military mass mobilises to reclaim it with air power and artillery, and civilians bear the cost of the back-and-forth.
The Mawtaung border gate remains closed as of Wednesday. The junta has said cross-border trade will resume, but has given no timeline for when displaced residents may return.
Additional reporting from Khaosod Thai
