“Because of this explosion, many local villagers lost their lives and suffered injuries and damage to their homes,” the TNLA said in a statement, without giving a specific toll.
The explosives belonged to its economic department, and the exact cause of the blast was under investigation, the group said.
Many rebel groups in Myanmar rely on mining of precious minerals to fund their campaigns against the military, with lax safety measures making mine collapses and other accidents common.
The country’s borderlands are home to a myriad of ethnic minority armed groups, many of which have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.
The so-called Three Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic minority armed groups – made up of the TNLA, the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) – agreed to a China-brokered ceasefire with the military in early 2024.
But in June that year, the TNLA launched fresh attacks in Shan state and the neighbouring Mandalay region.
That summer the rebels captured the northern ruby-mining town of Mogok, with the TNLA driving the opposition offensive.
Then in October last year, the TNLA said it had agreed to a withdrawal from Mogok, which was mediated by China.
Beijing is a key power broker in Myanmar’s civil war, analysts say, supporting both rebels and the military on a sliding scale according to its economic and security interests.
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