The rebel Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, which is comprised of ethnic Han Chinese, launched attacks against the army on 9 February 2015 in a failed bid to take over their historic homeland, the Kokang Self-Administered Zone. Heavy fighting for control of the frontier region lasted for months. The fighting has died down now, but Kokang is still heavily militarized.
The conflict drove about 70,000 people over the border into China’s Yunnan Province, according to the United Nations.
The Kokang Refugee Assistance Program, a local group that collects donations and distributes food, said 27,000 refugees remain scattered in camps near the town of Nansan. The UN puts the figure at 4,000, but because it cannot visit Kokang or areas on the Chinese side of the border, it relies on civil society organisations for its statistics. (Courtesy of IRIN)
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