Brig. Gen. Nyo Twan Awng ( my, ညိုထွန်းအောင်; also spelled Nyo Tun Aung, born Zaw Mro Thet on 4 March 1981) is the deputy leader of the

United League of Arakan The United League of Arakan (ULA; my, ရက္ခိုင့်အမျိုးသားအဖွဲ့ချုပ်) is an Rakhine people, Arakanese political organisation based in Laiza, Kachin State, Myanmar. Its armed wing is the Arak ...

and the Vice Commander-in-Chief of the Arakan Army.

Biography

Nyo Twan Awng was born Zaw Myo Thet on 4 March 1981 in

Kyaukpyu Kyaukpyu ( my, ကျောက်ဖြူမြို့ ; also spelt Kyaukphyu) is a major town in Rakhine State, in western Myanmar. It is located on the north western corner of Yanbye Island on Combermere Bay, and is 250 miles (400 ...

Rakhine State Rakhine State (; , , ; formerly known as Arakan State) is a Administrative divisions of Myanmar, state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady R ...

, Myanmar. During his teenage years, he attended medical studies in

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. He received his doctorate from

Dagon University Dagon University ( my, ဒဂုံ တက္ကသိုလ် ), located in North Dagon, Yangon, is one of the largest universities in Myanmar. The university, established in 1993, offers bachelor's and master's degrees in liberal arts and sc ...

. In 2009, the Arakan Army was founded and Nyo became one of its first members, attending the group's first training session. While working in Yangon as a surgeon, he had to avoid arrest by the Myanmar Police Force. He escaped to northern Myanmar and studied

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

as the Arakan Army's medical trainer. He characterised his group's January 4 independence day attack on four police stations as a defensive action in response to a build-up of Tatmadaw forces in northern

. He also pointed to the

Tatmadaw Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include th ...

's announcement on December 21, 2018, that it was suspending operations in five regional commands in northern Myanmar until April 30 as further evidence of an imminent campaign. However, the Tatmadaw extended to two and half months until the

Ta'ang National Liberation Army The Ta'ang National Liberation Army ( my, တအောင်း အမျိုးသား လွတ်မြောက်ရေး တပ်မတော်; abbreviated TNLA) in Myanmar (Burma), is the armed wing of the Palaung State Liberati ...

(TNLA) and other

Northern Alliance The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...

groups launched coordinated attacked on the

Defence Services Technological Academy The Defence Services Technological Academy (DSTA) ( my, တပ်မတော် နည်းပညာ တက္ကသိုလ်, ), located in Pyin-Oo-Lwin, Myanmar, is the premier technological university of the Myanmar Armed Forces. One o ...

Pyin Oo Lwin Pyin Oo Lwin or Pyin U Lwin (, ; Shan: ), formerly and colloquially referred to as Maymyo (), is a scenic hill town in the Mandalay Region, Myanmar, some east of Mandalay, and at an elevation of . The town was estimated to have a population of ...

on August 15, which promoted the Tatmadaw retaliate. In June 2018, Nyo attended the second Panglong Conference in

Naypyidaw Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city outs ...

, meeting with government officials to discuss the peace process for the decade-long conflict in the country.

Awards and honors

* Medal of Honor (AA) * Medal of Freedom and National Human Settlement * University of Dagon Medical Award (1999)

References

External links

* {{VK, drnyo Burmese people of Rakhine descent Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1981 births