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During the evening last month, Iang Za Kim listened to detonations in a adjacent village, then warplanes soaring above. She ran out her home to see plumes of smoke in the distance.

"We were petrified. We thought the regime's jets would bomb us too. So we took what we could carry – provisions and garments and fled into the woodlands surrounding our village."

Her face trembles as she tells the account of what occurred on 26 November in her community, located in Myanmar's western Chin State. She belongs to countless residents who've abandoned their homes in recent weeks following the Myanmar army began a relentless assault of aerial attacks, alongside infantry advances in insurgent-controlled zones across the country.

Some from Chin state have labeled the junta's latest offensive as the most intense it has unleashed in over three years. Many of the displaced have sought refuge in different areas of the state. Iang belongs to a group that entered into India's Mizoram state. At present residing in a decrepit badminton court in Vaphai village, the group's meager possessions they were able to carry are packed in plastic sacks.

An elderly man has had to abandon his residence at the age of 80, staying in makeshift shelters in the wilderness for days, prior to eventually reaching a secure location.

"We fear our own government. They are exceptionally brutal. Their military has come into our and other villages in the past, they've detained individuals, abused them, and set houses ablaze," he says.

It is difficult to speak to Burmese civilians without restriction. Myanmar's military government prohibits free access in the country for international reporters. It seized control of the country in a coup in February 2021, soon after the last election.

Civilian Cost and Targeted Attacks

During its latest offensive, the junta last week attacked a medical facility in a western state. Rebel groups in Rakhine say at least 30 people were slain and more than 70 wounded.

A monitoring body says that since mid-September at least three schools and several churches in Chin State have been attacked by junta airstrikes, claiming the lives of 12 people including six children.

Verification shows the destruction of a school in a village on 13 October. Two students were killed as they were in class. The bombs ripped through their classrooms harming more than a dozen other students.

Once again, Bawi Nei Lian and his loved ones – a wife and two young children - have been displaced. Back in 2021, shortly after the coup, their home was razed in an air strike. They rebuilt their lives in K-Haimual village. Now they're homeless again.

"Words fail me to explain how painful and hard it is and what a heart-wrenching call it was to make to leave. But we had to do it to stay alive," he says.

A Questioned Vote

A prominent political group, which won landslides in the two elections prior to the coup, is banned from running as most of its senior leaders are imprisoned.

"This vote is unwanted. Because the military lacks the ability to govern our country. They only work for the benefit of their high-ranking leaders. When the elected administration was in power, we experienced a measure of democracy. But now all we do is grieve and lament," says Ral Uk Thang.

A resident believes the election will be fixed. "If we voted for a party opposed to the military, I believe they will falsify the outcome and claim we voted for them."

The poll will be held in rounds, with a result anticipated around the end of January. Resistance forces have declared it a pretense.

Resistance Battleground and Sacrifices

Within a compound of a key resistance organization operating in the state, a leader states: "This election is only being held to prolong military dictatorship. It's not about the public's voice."

He points out the areas where the most intense fighting is ongoing. "Units of hundreds of soldiers trying to enter the northern part of Chin state from four directions," he says. "The troops are being supported by air strikes, artillery fire and by drone units."

Access to such bases is highly unusual. Set amid thickly forested mountains, it is the center of the opposition to the junta in Chin state.

In a hospital at the base, several injured fighters were brought in overnight and had to undergo hours of surgery. Some of them have had to undergo limb removals.

A significant number were just teenagers when the coup occurred in 2021. Now young adults, they've abandoned their dreams to fight on the frontline against the junta.

"During the pullback we ran forward and I detonated a landmine. We were injured in the explosion. Then we were struck from above. The airstrikes make things very hard for us," states a wounded rebel. "I've lost a leg, even if I've to give up my life I'm happy to make the sacrifice so that future generations have a brighter future."

The impact of the brutality of the ongoing operation is apparent in ward after ward at the hospital.

However, it's the determination and resolve of many thousands of youths who joined the fight that have helped the rebels make notable progress against a much more powerful rival.

Some like 80-year-old the man hope that post-poll, the junta will retreat, and he will be able to return home.

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