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Late one night last month, Iang Za Kim heard blasts in a adjacent village, and subsequently warplanes soaring above. She hurried outside her home to see a smoke cloud far away.

"We were horrified. We feared the junta's planes might attack us too. So we took what we could carry – a bit of food and clothing and ran into the woodlands around our village."

Her face trembles as she narrates the account of what happened on 26 November in K-Haimual, situated in Myanmar's western Chin State. She is one of thousands of civilians who've evacuated their homes in the last month subsequent to the Myanmar army launched a fierce campaign of aerial attacks, alongside infantry advances in insurgent-controlled zones throughout the nation.

People in Chin state have labeled the junta's latest offensive as the fiercest it has unleashed in over three years. A large number of those uprooted have found shelter in other regions of the state. Iang belongs to a group that made the border crossing into the Indian state of Mizoram. Now housed in a rundown badminton court in Vaphai, the group's meager possessions they were able to carry are stored in polyethylene bags.

Ral Uk Thang has had to escape his village at the age of 80, living in makeshift shelters in jungles for days, before finally finding refuge.

"We're afraid of our own government. They are exceptionally brutal. Their military has come into our and other villages in the past, they've taken citizens, mistreated them, and set houses ablaze," he says.

It is challenging to speak to Burmese civilians openly. Myanmar's military government prohibits unfettered entry in the country for international reporters. It assumed power in the country in a putsch in February 2021, soon after the last election.

Civilian Toll and Deliberate Attacks

In its most recent campaign, the junta recently targeted a clinic in Rakhine. Insurgent forces in Rakhine report at least 30 people were lost their lives and more than 70 hurt.

A human rights organization states that over recent months at least multiple schools and six churches in Chin State have been hit by regime air raids, causing the death of 12 people comprising six children.

Evidence confirms the bombing of a school in a community on 13 October. Two students perished as they were studying. The bombs tore through their classrooms wounding more than a dozen other students.

This is the second time, a father and his young family – a wife and two young children - have been uprooted. Previously in 2021, soon after the coup, their home was razed in an air strike. They reconstructed their existence in a new community. Now they're displaced a second time.

"It's hard to express to explain how difficult and traumatic it is and what a tough choice it was to make to leave. But we had to do it to survive," he says.

A Disputed Election

A prominent political group, which won landslides in the two elections before the coup, will not be contesting as the majority of its leadership are imprisoned.

"We don't want the election. Because the military lacks the ability to govern our country. They only work for the gain of their senior officers. When the previous government was in power, we experienced a measure of democracy. But now all we do is cry and shed tears," says the elderly man.

A resident believes the election will be fixed. "Should we cast a ballot for a party opposed to the military, I believe they will steal our votes and claim we voted for them."

The poll will occur in phases, with a result projected around the end of January. Insurgent organizations have declared it a sham.

Insurgent Frontline and Sacrifices

Within a compound of a key resistance organization operating in the state, a leader states: "This vote is only being held to perpetuate military dictatorship. It's not about the people's choice."

He highlights the areas where the heaviest clashes is continuing. "Battalions of hundreds of soldiers trying to enter the northern part of Chin state from multiple fronts," he says. "The infantry are being backed up by air strikes, artillery fire and by unmanned aerial vehicles."

Access to such bases is highly unusual. Set amid wooded hills, it is the center of the fight against the junta in Chin state.

Within a clinic at the base, several injured fighters had arrived overnight and had to undergo extensive medical procedures. Some of them have had to undergo surgeries.

Many of them were just schoolboys when the coup occurred in 2021. Just about adults now, they've let go of their dreams to engage in combat against the junta.

"While opposing forces withdrew we ran forward and I detonated a landmine. We were injured in the explosion. Then we were attacked from the air. The airstrikes make things very hard for us," explains a combatant. "Despite my injury, should I lose my life I'm happy to make the sacrifice so that those who follow have a brighter future."

The consequence of the ferocity of the ongoing operation is apparent in ward after ward at the hospital.

Nevertheless, it's the backing and courage of countless numbers of youths who joined the fight that have helped the rebels make significant gains against a much more powerful rival.

People including 80-year-old Ral Uk Thang hope that following the vote, the junta will pull back, and he will be able to go back home.

"However, I doubt I will live to see democracy restored in Myanmar," he says. "I hope my children and grandchildren can witness it some day."