[6] As a result of the conflict, the MNDAA lost control of the area and as many as 30,000 refugees fled to Yunnan in neighbouring China.

[18] Observers and activists claim that the junta's motivation for this proposal is to disarm and neutralise the ethnic groups before the Myanmar general election scheduled to take place sometime in 2010.

[24][25] Tensions came to a head on 8 August 2009 when the junta military, acting on a tip-off from China,[26] moved into the region for a raid on a gun factory suspected of being a drug front[27] and on Kokang leader Pheung's home.

[27][28][29] This confrontation, according to the newspaper Shan Herald, was only a "stand-off", with no shots being fired;[30][31] nevertheless, it triggered a mass exodus of locals who were worried about the possibility of violence.

[32] By 20 August, however, government troops were beginning to gather near Laukkai, and Kokang leaders reportedly urged residents to "be prepared", which prompted even more people to flee.

[24][20] The anti-junta Kachin News claimed that the takeover was aided by a "mutiny" staged by Kokang army leaders who had become loyal to the junta.

[39] By late 29 August, the United States-based Campaign for Burma claimed that as many as 700 Kokang fighters, outnumbered by junta troops, had fled, surrendered to the Chinese, and given up their weapons.

[42] The government issued a statement on 30 August claiming that the fighting had ended,[2] and later formed a new "Kokang Region Provisional Leading Committee" in Laukkai.

[1] No official casualty count was released in the first two days of fighting,[37] although Pheung Kya-shin claimed that his forces had killed over thirty Tatmadaw troops.

[4][44] On 30 August, the junta government released its first figures, claiming that the fighting had killed twenty-six junta troops (fifteen police, eleven soldiers) and wounded forty-seven (thirteen police, thirty-four soldiers),[3] and that eight rebel bodies had been found; the figures have not been independently confirmed, however.

[56] The American government also voiced its concern, and called on the junta to end its military campaign against the cease-fire groups.

[60] Major General Huang Xing, the former head of the research guidance department at the Chinese Academy of Military Science, was ousted in 2015 because of his relationship with MNDAA during this incident.