Fighting between government troops and rebels in north-eastern Myanmar has flared up after a 20-year cease-fire. At least 30 people have been killed.

The fighting took place in the Kokang region of the Shan province. All the victims, claims a rebel leader, belonged to the government forces. There have also been claims that approximately 50 government troops have been taken hostage.

The fighting is believed to have started when the country’s military junta put pressure on ethnic rebels to join a border guard in the run up to next year’s elections. But one such group has resisted, claiming the government only wants to neutralise its influence on the elections.

The violence has resulted in more than 30,000 people fleeing the region, many of them ethnic Chinese who have crossed the border into the south-west Chinese province of Yunnan.

China, which is one of Myanmar’s few allies, as well as its main source of military hardware and a major consumer of its vast natural resources, has issued a rare admonition and called on the country’s leaders to maintain peace in the region.

Map of Myanmar from Wikimedia Commons