Kyaukme, a once-thriving town in Myanmar’s Shan State, is in shambles, targeted by both sides in the Southeast Asian country’s bitter civil war because of its strategic location at a key junction on the trading route to China.
The army allowed an Associated Press photographer to join a trip supervised by pro-military Myanmar media, the only representative of foreign media who was permitted to do so. The military doesn’t allow a free press and bars journalists from entering conflict zones independently.
The town has changed hands twice since the army seized power in 2021.
An ethnic minority guerrilla group captured the town in August last year, but it fell back into the hands of the military government on Oct. 1. The recapture of the town is a major victory for the government, coming after the resistance was widely believed to have won control of most of the country.
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