Myanmar coup: Thousands of Burmese flee to Thailand after intense fighting

Some 10,000 Burmese people have fled to Thailand to escape fierce fighting between the military and units of a powerful ethnic armed group since Wednesday, Thai authorities said.

They are fleeing from Shwe Kokko town, controlled by a pro-military militia and home to Chinese-owned casinos.

This is one of the largest cross-border movements of people since a military coup two years ago.

The military has not released a statement yet about the fighting.

It is the latest in a civil war that has been raging since the coup in February 2021. Two years on, the military government has failed to impose its authority on large areas of the country. It is battling established ethnic armed groups in border areas that have been at war with the military for decades, and recently-formed anti-coup militias that call themselves People's Defence Forces (PDFs) in much of the rest of the country.

Many thousands of people have been killed and some 1.4 million have been displaced since the coup. Nearly one third of the country's population is in need of aid, according to the United Nations.