Due to junta closures of a section of the main road between Mandalay Region’s Mandalay City and Myitkyina City, the capital of Kachin State, there have been food shortages and soaring commodity prices in Kachin State.
Junta soldiers and members of the junta-aligned Pyu Saw Htee militia have blockaded the road near to the villages of Zeekone, Sabainantthar, and Paygyi in Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region since early March 2025. As a result vehicles using the road, including cargo trucks, passenger vehicles, and buses have been forced to use an alternative route known as the 40 Mile Road. It is far harder for large vehicles to use that route and using it is causing significant delays.
As its name suggests, 40 Mile Road is about 40 miles (about 64km) long, but it is an unpaved dirt road that often gets severely damaged during the wet season, which has only just started now. Fortunately the 40 Mile Road is controlled by resistance forces so the junta cannot blockade it.
A 40-year-old resident from Myitkyina City said: “The condition of the bypass route currently in use is really poor. The road is rough, and it’s very difficult for cargo trucks to travel on. Because of that, fewer trucks are reaching Myitkyina. Betel leaves are already running out, and I’ve heard that some raw food supplies needed for tea shops are also starting to run low.”
The blockade has not just led to shortages in Myitkyina City, it has also led to price rises. Another woman from Myitkyina City said: “All the big jerrycans of cooking oil are sold out everywhere, so people can only get the small bottles now. Prices have gone up too—before, a bottle cost 10,000 MMK, but now it’s 12,000 MMK. With no new supplies coming in, the price of Shwe Wah soap, which is popular among customers, has also jumped to around 500 to 600 MMK per bar.”
But the blockade is not just causing shortages in Myitkyina, it is also causing shortages in Kachin State towns and townships to the north, such as Putao Township, that are also facing shortages because all their supplies come via Myitkyina. There are shortages of staples such as wheat flour, cooking oil, tomatoes, betel leaves and other essential goods.
There had already been a shortage of goods and raised prices in Kachin State because the junta had blockaded the road from Mandalay to Myitkyina as it passed through Indaw Town in August 2024. On 7 April 2025 people’s defence forces (PDFs) and allied groups captured Indaw Town and re-opened the road but unfortunately, by then the current junta blockade had already started.
That blockade also forced vehicles to use alternative routes causing raised prices and shortages of goods in Kachin State, similar to the current situation.
A woman running a convenience store in Myitkyina’s Tatkone Ward comparing the two blockades said: “In the past, cargo sent from Mandalay would get to Myitkyina in about a week, despite trucks having to take a bypass because of the blockade at Indaw. But now, cargo sent from Mandalay since 18 May still hasn’t arrived in Myitkyina, even though it’s been more than 10 days.
