(Reuters) – The president of military-ruled Myanmar has said the country is at risk of breaking apart due to ineffective management of recent violence in its border regions with China.
The Myanmar junta is facing the biggest challenge to its authority since it gained power in a 2021 coup, with attacks by revolutionary and ethnic armed forces on hundreds of junta bases in the north, northeast, northwest and southeast of the country.
“If the government does not effectively manage the incidents happening in the border region, the country will be split into various parts,” Myint Swe, president of the State Administration Council (SAC), told a national defence and security council meeting.
“It is necessary to carefully control this issue. As now is an important time for the State, the entire people need to support Tatmadaw (the military).”
In the northeast, the junta has lost control of some border trade towns with China. The Chinese government also confirmed this week that there had been Chinese casualties due to military ordinance going over the border.
(Reporting by Reuters staff, Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Michael Perry)
