Junta Captures Mawlu, Completing Control of Entire Mandalay–Myitkyina Highway — Strategic Logistics Blow to Resistance

Myanmar junta forces captured Mawlu, a strategic logistics hub in Katha District, northern Sagaing Region, on approximately May 5, 2026, completing SAC control of the entire Mandalay–Myitkyina road and rail corridor — Myanmar's primary north-south supply route into Kachin State. The fall of Mawlu came just six days after the junta retook nearby Indaw (April 29) and follows months of SAC column advancing northward from Htigyaing toward Katha. With Mawlu's capture, the SAC announced it had secured the full Mandalay → Madaya → Thabeikkyin → Tagaung → Htigyaing → Indaw → Mawlu → Myitkyina highway corridor, cutting the KIA's primary land logistics line from Sagaing to Kachin State. Resistance forces that had held Mawlu since December 13, 2023 — a major gain from that year's PDF offensive — withdrew from the town as the junta column advanced. Civilians from at least 7 nearby villages fled into the forests of Kachin State ahead of the junta advance. The strategic significance of the Mawlu corridor is enormous: it feeds the Hpakant jade-mining zone (a critical KIA revenue and supply corridor) and underpins the junta's longer-term objective of isolating KIA forces in Kachin State from southern PDF and NUG support. Multiple sources including DVB, Myanmar Now, and MoeMaKa confirmed the capture.