Democratic Karen Buddhist Army

Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
တိုးတက်သော ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ ကရင်အမျိုးသား တပ်ဖွဲ့
Leaders	U Thuzana
Dates of operation	1994 (1994)–2009 (2009) (As DKBA) 2009–2024 (As BGF)
Active regions	Kayin State, Myanmar
Ideology	Karen nationalism Theravāda Buddhism
Size	6,000
Allies	Union of Myanmar Tatmadaw
Opponents	State opponents Union of Myanmar (until 1994) Non-state opponents Karen National Union Karen National Liberation Army
Battles and wars	Internal conflict in Myanmar Karen conflict Fall of Manerplaw Battle of Kawmoora
Preceded by Karen National Union Succeeded by DKBA-5 Karen National Army

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA; Burmese: တိုးတက်သော ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ ကရင်အမျိုးသား တပ်ဖွဲ့) was an insurgent group of Buddhist soldiers and officers in Myanmar that split from the predominantly Christian-led Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), one of the largest rebel factions in Myanmar. Shortly after splitting from the KNLA in December 1994, the DKBA signed a ceasefire agreement with the government of Myanmar in exchange for military and financial assistance; provided that it supported government offensives against the KNU (the political wing of the KNLA) and its allies.^[1]

In 2009, the DKBA officially joined the Burmese Army as a Border Guard Force. The DKBA -known officially as the Karen Border Guard Force- worked primarily as an auxiliary force in Kayin State for the next 13 years until 2024, when tensions with the ruling military junta of Myanmar grew. In January 2024, the Karen BGF began distancing itself from the ruling military junta,^[2] eventually splitting off from the army and rebranding themselves as the Karen National Army in April.^[3]