The country’s junta and anti-coup guerillas battled over the country’s jade mining hub, a combatant and a local said, displacing desperate civilians as they vied for supplies of the precious stone.
Myanmar has been consumed by a many-sided civil war since a 2021 coup toppled the democratic government, with the myriad of fighting factions plundering the nation’s vast natural resources to fill their coffers.
Jade is considered auspicious in Chinese culture and high-quality stones can fetch astronomical sums in the neighbouring country. Kachin State hosts the largest jade deposits in the world according to geologists.
Fighting has raged during a Myanmar military offensive around villages and mining sites in Hpakant township of northern Kachin State, according to Naw Bu, spokesman of the Kachin Independence Army battling the junta in the area.
“They came to the jade mining areas of some companies and they burned down trucks and destroyed other things,” he added.
“They intended to stop our income from jade mining.”
AFP was not able to verify the claim and a spokesman for Myanmar’s junta could not be reached for comment.
Battles in the area began around three weeks ago but continued in the early hours of Friday, Naw Bu said.
A local resident who asked to remain anonymous said around 15 civilians had been killed since May 28 and “some residents didn’t dare to stay in the combat zone and have been displaced”. — AFP
