The junta has conscripted 120 youths aged 16 to 20 from Naungmon Town in Kachin state’s Putao District and is forcing them to serve in the junta-aligned Naungmon Township Militia in Khaunglanhpu Township.
On 7 February 2025, the junta-appointed township administration officer of Naungmon Town, the administrative centre of Naungmon Township, the northernmost township in Myanmar, announced that that men in Naungmon Town would now face conscription and if conscripted they would have to serve in the army or local junta-aligned militia groups.
From February until the end of March, junta soldiers and members of the junta-aligned Naungmon militia group, based in Naungmon Township, forcibly conscripted youths aged from about 16 to 20 to serve in the Naungmon Township Militia.
The legal minimum age for conscription in Myanmar is 18 years. the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child which Myanmar has ratified, says that signatory states cannot conscript people under 18 years of age or send them into combat.
Despite this some of the youths conscripted in Naungmon Town were under 18. Most were boys, but some of the 120 conscripted youths were girls. During April they all underwent military training which they have now completed.
A woman from Naungmon Town said to KNG: “The youths have finished their military training. Most of them are boys, but a few girls have joined too. Altogether, there are over 100 of them.”
The newly conscripted and trained youths will be deployed to just outside Khaunglanhpu Town, about 45 miles (about 65km) southwest of Naungmon Town. There they will serve on the frontline supporting members of the Khaunglanhpu Town People’s Militia, in direct contravention of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
A man from Naungmon Town said: “The conscripts were young people from both the town and nearby villages. Their training lasted about a month. Now, the junta is preparing to send them to Khaunglanhpu, where they’re expected to be deployed at a site about 2 miles [about 3.2km] from Khaunglanhpu Town.”
The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) launched an offensive against junta-held Khaunglanhpu Township on 15 December 2024. In response the junta has been reinforcing its forces in Khaunglanhpu Town, including with these 120 new young conscripts.
Currently, the junta still holds most of Khaunglanhpu Township and has restricted entry to the township to people holding national identification cards (NICs) issued in Kachin State.
