MAE SOT, Thailand – Thailand has sent messages to Myanmar’s junta to reduce violence, its foreign minister said on April 12, adding that preparations are under way for an influx of people crossing into Thailand after the fall of a border town to rebels.

Mr Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said Thailand is also working with Asean members to follow a stalled peace plan for Myanmar, known as its five-point consensus.

“Thailand wants to see peace and dialogue,” he told reporters, following a visit to Mae Sot. It lies across the Myanmar town of Myawaddy that was wrested out of military control by anti-junta forces led by the Karen National Union (KNU) rebel group.

He added that Bangkok is considering alternative trade routes in case of road closures caused by the fighting.

A stream of people, some fearing air strikes, queued at a border crossing to flee Myanmar early on April 12, a day after the strategically vital town of Myawaddy near Thailand fell to anti-junta resistance that is gaining strength.

The loss of the town robs the junta, already grappling with an economy in free fall, of vital earnings from border trade while strengthening rebel groups such as the KNU that led the assault on Myawaddy, analysts said.

“I am afraid of air strikes,” said Myawaddy resident Moe Moe Thet, who crossed to Thailand with her son.

“They caused very loud noises that shook my house,” she added of the sound of bombs that prompted fears for their safety.

“That’s why I escaped here. They can’t bomb Thailand,” she said.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told Myanmar media that some of its troops surrendered because they were accompanied by their families, and talks with Thailand for their return are in progress.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since 2021 when the military deposed an elected civilian government, triggering widespread protests it sought to crush with brutal force.

Simmering anger against the junta turned into a nationwide armed resistance movement that is now increasingly operating in coordination with established ethnic rebel groups.

About 200 Myanmar military personnel withdrew on April 11 to a bridge linking to Mae Sot after the KNU said it had taken control of Myawaddy.

But the Myanmar military may still seek to mount a counter-attack, supported by its air force, to regain the town, said Dr Dulyapak Preecharush, an associate professor of South-east Asian studies at Bangkok’s Thammasat University.

“So there is a question about possible intensification of fighting in the coming days,” he told Reuters.

As fighting in Myanmar intensified, the numbers crossing to Mae Sot from Myawaddy doubled this week to about 4,000 a day.

On April 11, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said the fighting should not spill into his country's airspace. In an interview with Reuters last week, he said the Myanmar junta was losing strength, as he pushes to open talks with the regime.

Thailand, which said it is keeping neutral in the Myanmar conflict and can accept up to 100,000 people displaced by it, has pursued engagement, including aid deliveries, with its neighbour since Mr Srettha came to power in August 2023.

Yet the junta could find itself stretched further after the Arakan Army rebel group warned it would renew an offensive in the western state of Rakhine.

Arakan Army chief Twan Mrat Naing warned residents of the Rakhine cities of Sittwe and Kyauk Phyu to relocate ahead of a “decisive battle”, the group said in a statement.

One of Myanmar's most powerful ethnic armed forces, the Arakan Army was part of Operation 1027, a major assault by three rebel groups in October 2023 that seized significant territory from the junta. REUTERS