Myanmar jungle rebels struggle for cash and guns

Makeshift mess hall: KNDF members eating a meal at their base camp in the forest near Demoso, in Myanmar’s eastern Kayah state. — AFP

Young anti-coup recruits line up at a secret camp in Myanmar, hands behind their heads and stomachs braced, waiting for a drill instructor to deliver a punch to toughen them up for their fight against the military.

Since the February coup, dozens of “people’s defence forces” (PDFs) have sprung up across the country to fight back against the generals’ putsch and bloody crackdown.