Kohima: A group of leaders broke away from the Isak Muivah-led National Socialist Nagalim Council (NSCN-IM) and announced the formation of an “interim government”. They claimed that the spirit of the ceasefire agreement with the Center “no longer exists.”
The New East Wing faction said the decision was made at an “extraordinary joint emergency meeting” held on July 21 at Mount Horeb camp in Myanmar’s Sagaing region. She said the move was aimed at “saving the nation from another surrender” and “rescuing the Naga political movement from its current predicament.”
The group announced a nine-member “provisional government” headed by Ekato Chishi Sow, son of the late NSCN(IM) co-founder Isak Chishi Sow, as president and Mr. Ramesan as vice president.
Swu’s promotion is likely to deepen the NSCN(M) crisis, being interpreted as a challenge to the leadership of the parent organization headed by Thuingaleng Muivah who is now over 90 years old.
Su had joined the Myanmar-based faction in April 2025, saying he had lost confidence in the group’s current leadership.
The dissident faction also declared the expulsion orders issued by the NSCN-IM leadership against Ramesan and Absalom Raman on June 24, and against Su and four others on July 7, “null and void.”
“Those who have surrendered and surrendered to the pressure of the Indian government have no right to expel/terminate those who have remained steadfast in the struggle for the sovereign existence of the Naga nation,” the faction said.
The group rejected the ‘terms of reference’ submitted by the NSCN-IM leadership to the Centre, alleging that it jeopardized the Naga political position by placing it within the Union and the Constitution of India. It also accused the leadership of engaging in “meaningless and endless” talks and failing to act after what it described as the Centre’s “betrayal” of the framework agreement signed on August 3, 2015.
The faction asserted that the spirit of the 1997 ceasefire agreement had ended, and said it would continue political and armed resistance to protect the “sovereign existence” of the Naga state.
The Center and the NSCN(IM) entered into a ceasefire in 1997 and began negotiations for a political solution to the protracted conflict.
Operations control mission
