A group of Myanmar soldiers fled across the Thai border on Friday after an assault by an ethnic armed group ousted them from their base, Thailand鈥檚 military said.
Myanmar has been riven by civil war after the military seized power in a 2021 coup, with the junta fighting an array of armed ethnic organisations and pro-democracy partisans.
Fighters from the Karen National Liberation Army attacked the Pulu Tu frontier military base in the early hours of Friday, the Thai military said.
鈥楾he Myanmar military defended the base but ultimately the KNLA successfully seized control,鈥� it said in a statement.
鈥楽everal Myanmar soldiers were killed and some fled across the border into Thailand.鈥�
The statement did not specify how many Myanmar soldiers had crossed the border into Thailand鈥檚 Tak province but said they had been 鈥榩rovided humanitarian assistance鈥�.
KNLA forces seized the base around 3:00am (2030 GMT Thursday), according to a spokesman for the organisation鈥檚 political wing, the Karen National Union.
The KNLA fighters took the base after Myanmar troops 鈥榓bandoned their guns and ran into Thailand鈥�, it said.
A spokesman for the Myanmar junta could not be reached for comment.
The Pulu Tu base is around 80 kilometres north of the border town of Myawaddy, a vital trade node that became a battleground between anti-junta fighters and the military last year.
The region is also the epicentre of the scam-centre boom in Myanmar, where thousands of foreign nationals trawl the internet for victims to trick with romance or investment schemes.
Many workers say they were trafficked into the centres and thousands have been repatriated through Thailand in recent weeks under mounting international pressure.
The KNLA has been fighting for decades to establish greater autonomy for the Karen people living along Myanmar鈥檚 southeastern flank.
It is among dozens of ethnic armed organisations, already active before the coup, which have proved the most effective fighting forces against the junta.
While the military has suffered substantial territorial losses, analysts say it remains strong in Myanmar鈥檚 heartland, with an air force capable of inflicting punishing losses on its adversaries.
The junta issued a conscription order a year ago to boost its embattled ranks, allowing it to call up all men aged 18-35 for military service.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme will be forced to cut off one million people in war-torn Myanmar from its vital food aid because of 鈥榗ritical funding shortfalls鈥�, it said on Friday.
The United States provided the UN鈥檚 World Food Programme with $4.4 billion of its $9.7 billion budget in 2024 but Washington鈥檚 international aid funding has been slashed under president Donald Trump.
Myanmar has been gripped by civil war following a 2021 military coup, plunging it into what the United Nations describes as a 鈥榩olycrisis鈥� of mutually compounding conflict, poverty and instability.
It is controlled by a shifting patchwork of junta forces, ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy partisans that have fractured the economy, driven up poverty and complicated the supply of aid.
The WFP says more than 15 million people in the country of 51 million are unable to meet their daily food needs, with more than two million of them 鈥榝acing emergency levels of hunger鈥�.
鈥楳ore than one million people in Myanmar will be cut off from WFP鈥檚 lifesaving food assistance starting in April due to critical funding shortfalls,鈥� it said in a statement.
鈥楾hese cuts come just as increased conflict, displacement and access restrictions are already sharply driving up food aid needs,鈥� it said.
The statement did not mention the United States by name or any other donor countries.
