The Chin National Front (CNF) stated that it met with the Interim Chin National Consultative Council (ICNCC) for further discussions on reunification of the two factions of the Chin resistance in India’s Mizoram State capital Aizawl on Oct. 16-17.
“We saw favorable prospects for reunification,” Salai Khua Uk Lian, a CNF executive committee member, told DVB in an exclusive interview.
The CNF, which is the oldest ethnic armed group in Chin State, withdrew from the ICNCC due to internal disputes in December 2023. It went on to establish its own governing body without the ICNCC called the Chinland Council.
“We agreed to jointly draft a constitution that we will all use. CNF already has the Chinland Council constitution, but we have agreed to write a new one rather than continue using it,” added Salai Khua Uk Lian.
The two factions agreed to merge into a governing body called Chin National Council in February 2025.
The ICNCC was established in April 2021 by Chin resistance forces and lawmakers from the National League for Democracy (NLD) party elected in 2020 but ousted in the coup.
The latest meeting to discuss reunification between the two Chin resistance factions follows an invitation for the CNF to attend “peace talks” by regime leader Min Aung Hlaing in a video message on the 11th anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) on Oct. 15.
The CNF signed the NCA on Oct. 15, 2015 with then-President Thein Sein. But following the 2021 coup led by Min Aung Hlaing, declared it “null and void.”
Khua Uk Lian told DVB that the CNF doesn’t trust Min Aung Hlaing and has no confidence in his regime. The CNF is one of the four founding ethnic armed group members of the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union (SCEF)—Myanmar’s premier resistance coalition—formed on March 30.
The reunification talks and Min Aung Hlaing’s offer for “peace talks” under the NCA comes amid an ongoing regime counteroffensive against resistance forces in southern Chin State.
Regime media reported that the military regained control of Hlaingdoke village, located roughly six miles (10 km) northeast of Chin’s Kyindwe town, located in Kanpetlet Township, on Oct. 21.
Its report claimed that at least 11 resistance members were killed and their bodies were recovered by regime forces following attacks which began on Sept. 24. The military never shares its own casualty figures.
Salai Yaw Man, the spokesperson of the Chin People’s Army (CPA), stated on Oct. 20 that Chin resistance forces have been fighting on multiple fronts since the regime expanded its counteroffensive into Chin’s Kanpetlet, Mindat, and Kyindwe towns, as well as neighbouring Magway Region’s Htilin Township on May 16.
Mindat, Kyindwe and Kanpetlet, located 171-189 miles (275-304 km) south of the Chin State capital Hakha, were seized by the armed wing of the ICNCC—known as the Chin Brotherhood—in December 2024. Htilin is located along the Magway-Chin corridor 179 miles (288 km) northwest of the region’s capital Magway.
Khua Uk Lian told DVB that the CNF is currently not coordinating military operations with the Chin Brotherhood. “We have every intention to [in the future],” he added.
Regime forces also regained control of Chin’s Falam Township from the Chin Brotherhood on April 25. The regime also controls Tonzang and parts of Thantlang and Tedim, located 22-144 miles (35-231 km) west and north of Hakha.
Chin resistance forces control Mindat, Kanpetlet and Matupi, as well as parts of Thantlang and Tedim.
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