MYANMAR CIVIL WAR — RESISTANCE FORCES

ETHNIC ARMED
ORGANIZATIONS

Profiles of Myanmar's Major Resistance & Ethnic Armies

တိုင်းရင်းသားလက်နက်ကိုင် အဖွဲ့အစည်းများ — Active since 1948

20+ Active EAOs

200,000+ Combined Personnel

14 States / Regions

1948 First Insurgency

Three Brotherhood Alliance FPNCC NUG / PDF Alliance Independent / Ceasefire

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ALLIANCES

Coalition Structure

Myanmar's armed resistance operates through overlapping coalitions and bilateral alliances

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Three Brotherhood Alliance

3BA · FORMED 2019

A military alliance between MNDAA, TNLA, and AA formed in 2019. Launched Operation 1027 on 27 October 2023, achieving the largest territorial gains of any resistance force since the 2021 coup. Primarily operates in Shan State North and Rakhine State.

MNDAA TNLA AA

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FPNCC

Federal Political Negotiation & Consultative Committee · 2016

A joint negotiating body of major EAOs under Chinese influence, formed to engage in peace talks with the government. Includes some of the largest armed groups. Members maintain varying degrees of independence from the NUG.

UWSA MNDAA TNLA AA SSPP NDAA

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NUG / Federal Democracy Charter

NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT · EST. 2021

A shadow government formed after the 2021 coup by deposed elected officials. Established the People's Defence Force (PDF) as its military wing. Coordinates with major EAOs including KIA, KNU, KNPP, and CNF under the Federal Democracy Charter framework.

PDF KIA KNU KNPP CNF

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Independent / Ceasefire

VARIOUS ARRANGEMENTS

Several EAOs maintain independent postures — notably the UWSA (largest EAO, ~30,000 troops) which holds a de facto autonomous territory and has not joined either side in the post-2021 conflict. RCSS/SSA-S signed the NCA in 2015 but maintains its own priorities.

UWSA RCSS NDAA PNO

THREE BROTHERHOOD ALLIANCE

3BA — Operation 1027 Forces

MNDAA · TNLA · AA — Launched Operation 1027 on 27 October 2023, seizing hundreds of SAC outposts across Shan State North and Rakhine

MNDAA

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army

မြန်မာ့အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီမဟာမိတ်တပ်မတော် (ကိုးကန့်)

3BA

~6,000Personnel

1989Founded

KokangBase

Full NameMyanmar National Democratic Alliance Army — Eastern Shan State
LeadershipPeng Daxun (Chairman)
TerritoryShan State Special Region No. 1 (Kokang); held Lashio Jul 2024 – Apr 2025
EthnicityKokang (Han Chinese-speaking)
IdeologyKokang regional autonomy; anti-SAC
Key Op.Op. 1027 (Oct 2023); held Lashio Jul 2024 – Apr 2025; returned under ceasefire

CEASEFIRE Wikipedia ↗

TNLA

Ta'ang National Liberation Army

ပအိုဝ်းအမျိုးသားလွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်မတော် (တအာင်)

3BA

~8,000Personnel

2009Founded

Shan N.Base

Full NameTa'ang National Liberation Army (Palaung)
LeadershipTar Bone Kyaw (Chairman); Li Ye Winn (TNLA Commander)
TerritoryPalaung SAZ, N. Shan State; Nawnghkio, Kyaukme, Hsipaw recaptured by SAC (2025); Mogok & Mongmit returned under ceasefire
EthnicityTa'ang (Palaung) — northern Shan State
IdeologyTa'ang self-determination; federal democracy
Key Op.Op. 1027 Phase I & II; held Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Mogok, Mongmit before ceasefire; withdrew under agreement with SAC

CEASEFIRE Wikipedia ↗

AA / ULA

Arakan Army — United League of Arakan

ရခိုင်တပ်မတော် — ပြည်ထောင်စုရခိုင်အဖွဲ့ချုပ်

3BA

~30,000Personnel

2009Founded

RakhineBase

Full NameArakan Army / United League of Arakan
LeadershipTun Myat Naing (political); Nyo Twan Awng (military commander)
TerritoryControls most of Rakhine State; captured Sittwe area 2024–25
EthnicityRakhine (Arakan) — western Myanmar
IdeologyArakan independence movement; federal state
Key Op.Seized ~80% of Rakhine State 2023–2024; controls Maungdaw, Ann, Thandwe

ACTIVE COMBAT Wikipedia ↗

KACHIN STATE

Kachin Independence Army

One of Myanmar's oldest and most powerful ethnic armies — fighting since 1961

KIA / KIO

Kachin Independence Army — Kachin Independence Organisation

ကချင်လွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်မတော် — ကချင်လွတ်မြောက်ရေးအဖွဲ့ချုပ်

NUG-aligned

~12,000Personnel

1961Founded

LaizaHQ

Full NameKachin Independence Army / Kachin Independence Organisation
LeadershipN'Ban La (KIO President); Lt. Gen. Gun Maw (Vice President)
TerritoryKachin State; HQ at Laiza on China border; controls most of Kachin State
EthnicityKachin (Jingpo) — northern Myanmar
History17-yr ceasefire 1994–2011; resumed conflict after Tatmadaw offensive in Kachin State
Key Op.2024: captured Sumprabum, Chipwi, Sadon, Chiphwe; advancing towards Bhamo

ACTIVE COMBAT Wikipedia ↗

KAREN / KARENNI

Karen & Karenni Armed Forces

KNU/KNLA and KNPP — fighting for Karen and Karenni self-determination since the 1940s

KNU / KNLA

Karen National Union — Karen National Liberation Army

ကရင်အမျိုးသားအစည်းအရုံး — ကရင်အမျိုးသားလွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်မတော်

NUG-aligned

~7,000Personnel

1947Founded

ManerplawHist. HQ

LeadershipSaw Tamla Baw (President); Saw Johnny (KNLA Chief of Staff)
TerritoryKayin State, Bago Region; controls large areas along Thai border
EthnicityKaren (Kayin) — southeastern Myanmar
NCASigned Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement 2015; suspended cooperation after 2021 coup
Key Op.Captured Mone, Hpapun (Mar 2024); controls Lay Kay Kaw border crossing

ACTIVE COMBAT Wikipedia ↗

KNPP / KNDF

Karenni National Progressive Party — Karenni Nationalities Defence Force

ကရင်နီအမျိုးသားတိုးတက်ရေးပါတီ — ကရင်နီအမျိုးသားကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်

NUG-aligned

~5,000Personnel

1957Founded

KayahBase

LeadershipKhu Oo Reh (KNPP Chairman)
TerritoryKayah (Karenni) State; controls Demoso, Moebye, Shadaw, Mawchi
EthnicityKarenni (Kayah) — eastern Myanmar
Post-2021Formed KNDF after 2021 coup; one of the first to openly fight Tatmadaw
Key Op.Controls ~70% of Kayah State; major offensive 2023–24

ACTIVE COMBAT Wikipedia ↗

SHAN STATE

Shan & Wa Armed Forces

SSPP/SSA-N · RCSS/SSA-S · UWSA — operating across the largest state in Myanmar

SSPP / SSA-N

Shan State Progress Party — Shan State Army North

ရှမ်းပြည်တိုးတက်ရေးပါတီ — ရှမ်းပြည်တပ်မတော် (မြောက်)

FPNCC

~8,000Personnel

1964Founded

Shan N.Base

Full NameShan State Progress Party / Shan State Army – North
TerritoryNorthern Shan State (Mong Ton, Namtu area); partially overlaps with TNLA zone
EthnicityShan — northern Shan State
StanceFPNCC member; has not formally joined 3BA or NUG; limited cooperation with TNLA

LIMITED ACTIVITY Wikipedia ↗

RCSS / SSA-S

Restoration Council of Shan State — Shan State Army South

ရှမ်းပြည်နယ် ပြန်လည်ထူထောင်ရေးကောင်စီ — ရှမ်းပြည်တပ်မတော် (တောင်)

NCA

~8,000Personnel

1985Founded

Shan S.Base

Full NameRestoration Council of Shan State / Shan State Army – South
TerritorySouthern Shan State; Loi Tai Leng HQ near Thai border
EthnicityShan — central-southern Shan State
NCASigned 2015 NCA; maintains complex relationship with SAC post-coup

CEASEFIRE / NEGOTIATING Wikipedia ↗

UWSA / UWSP

United Wa State Army — United Wa State Party

ဝပြည်သော်တော်တပ်မတော် — ဝပြည်သော်တော်ပါတီ

NEUTRAL

~30,000Personnel

1989Founded

Wa SAZTerritory

LeadershipBao Youxiang (Chairman); Xiao Minliang (Vice Chairman)
TerritoryWa Self-Administered Division; de facto independent state
EthnicityWa — Shan State Special Region No. 2
StanceLargest EAO; strictly neutral; close ties with China; FPNCC member
EconomyControls significant territory including agriculture, mining, and border trade

NEUTRAL — NO ACTIVE COMBAT Wikipedia ↗

CHIN STATE

Chin National Front

CNF / CNA — Chin Brotherhood Alliance fighting for Chin self-determination in western Myanmar

CNF / CNA

Chin National Front — Chin National Army

ချင်းအမျိုးသားတပ်ဦး — ချင်းအမျိုးသားတပ်မတော်

NUG-aligned

~5,000Personnel

1988Founded

ChinBase

LeadershipPu Cin Sian Thang (CNF President)
TerritoryChin State; captured Falam (Apr 2026), Mindat (Dec 2024), Kanpetlet
EthnicityChin — western Myanmar; diverse sub-groups
AlliancePart of Chin Brotherhood Alliance (CBA); cooperates with CNF, CDF, ZRA
Key Op.Controls majority of Chin State; cut SAC supply lines to Falam and Hakha

ACTIVE COMBAT Wikipedia ↗

PDF / NUG

People's Defence Force

The armed wing of the National Unity Government — a nationwide guerilla force formed after the 2021 coup

PDF / NUG

People's Defence Force — National Unity Government

ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်မတော် — အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ

NUG

~100,000Personnel

2021Founded

NationwideOperations

Political WingNational Unity Government (NUG) — formed Apr 2021 by CRPH
LeadershipDuwa Lashi La (Acting President); Mahn Win Khaing Than (PM)
OperationsNationwide; active in Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway, Bago regions and beyond
StructureDecentralised; regional PDF units plus NUG-aligned township-level forces
StatusInternationally recognised as shadow government by several democratic nations
Key Op.Active guerilla campaign across Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway; Kawlin, Tigyaing, Indaw previously held

ACTIVE — NATIONWIDE Wikipedia ↗

COMPARISON

EAO Strength Overview

Comparative data across major ethnic armed organizations

Organization	Personnel	Founded	Territory	Alliance	Status
UWSA	~30,000	1989	Wa SAZ	FPNCC	Neutral
AA	~30,000	2009	Rakhine State	3BA · FPNCC	Active
PDF/NUG	~100,000	2021	Nationwide	NUG	Active
KIA	~12,000	1961	Kachin State	NUG-aligned	Active
TNLA	~8,000	2009	N. Shan State	3BA · FPNCC	Ceasefire
SSPP	~8,000	1964	N. Shan State	FPNCC	Limited
RCSS	~8,000	1985	S. Shan State	NCA	Ceasefire
KNU/KNLA	~7,000	1947	Kayin State	NUG-aligned	Active
MNDAA	~6,000	1989	Kokang / Lashio	3BA · FPNCC	Ceasefire
KNPP/KNDF	~5,000	1957	Kayah State	NUG-aligned	Active
CNF/CNA	~5,000	1988	Chin State	NUG-aligned	Active

Personnel figures are estimates from open-source reporting. Sources: Wikipedia, Irrawaddy, BNI, ACLED.

ETHNIC ARMEDORGANIZATIONS

Coalition Structure

3BA — Operation 1027 Forces

Kachin Independence Army

Karen & Karenni Armed Forces

Shan & Wa Armed Forces

Chin National Front

People's Defence Force

EAO Strength Overview

ETHNIC ARMED
ORGANIZATIONS