Myanmar Royal Dragon Army

The Myanmar Royal Dragon Army (MRDA; Burmese: မြန်မာ့တော်ဝင်နဂါးတပ်တော်), also known as Myanmar's Royal Dragon Army, was an armed resistance organisation based in Pale Township, Sagaing Region. It was founded on 1 January 2022 by its leader, Bo Nagar, and was under the command of the National Unity Government.^[3][4][5][6] The Myanmar Royal Dragon Army was reformed and renamed as the Burma National Revolutionary Army (BNRA; Burmese: ဗမာအမျိုးသားတော်လှန်ရေးတပ်မတော်) on September 9, 2023.^[7]

Myanmar Royal Dragon Army (2022-Sep 2023) Burma National Revolutionary Army (Sep 2023-present) မြန်မာ့တော်ဝင်နဂါးတပ်တော် (2022-Sep 2023) ဗမာအမျိုးသားတော်လှန်ရေးတပ်မတော် (Sep 2023-present)
Leader	Bo Nagar
Foundation	1 January 2022 (2022-01-01)
Active regions	Pale Township, Sagaing Region, Mandalay Region
Size	1000+[1]
Allies	National Unity Government People's Defence Force Myanmar National Defence Force Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army
Opponents	Myanmar (SAC) Tatmadaw  Myanmar Army North Western Command Myanmar Police Force Pyusawhti militias[2]
Battles and wars	Internal conflict in Myanmar Myanmar civil war (2021–present)

History

Flag of the Myanmar Royal Dragon Army (2022-2023)

In February 2022, the MRDA announced it had attacked two bases near the villages of Ziphyugone and Einmahti alongside another resistance groups. The MRDA claimed that around 40 junta troops and Pyusawhti militia members had been killed.^[8][9]

In late April 2022, the MRDA attacked a number of outposts in Pale held by the Tatmadaw and Pyusawhti, a pro-junta militia. The MRDA also ambushed junta forces which it claimed were raiding villages and burning civilian homes.^[10]

Reorganization

On 14 March 2022, MRDA troops from Yinmabin District were restructured into Yinmabin District People's Defence Force battalions- specifically Yinmabin PDF Battalions 3 through 6. The battalation were also additionally funded by the NUG on top of existing financial support from donations totaling around eUSD 260,000 to date.^[11]

Renaming

Later on 9 September 2023, Bo Nagar announced that the remaining parts of MRDA was to be renamed as the Burma National Revolutionary Army (BNRA) and stated that their group would not be under the NUG's chain of command.^[7] Political analysts Than Soe Naing remarked this change as a step towards creating a Bamar EAO.^[12] BNRA claimed that they intend to work together with the National Unity Government, with whom they met on September 12, 2023 to discuss NUG’s chain of command as well as the cooperation of BNRA with NUG’s administrative and defense mechanisms.^[13]