Myanmar's military leaders have announced a temporary ceasefire as the death toll from a devastating earthquake rose to more than 3,000 and desperate survivors pleaded for more help amid frantic scenes of aid distribution.
The shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake on Friday flattened buildings across Myanmar, killing nearly 3,000 people and making thousands more homeless. Deaths rose to 3,085 on Thursday, with 4,715 injured and 341 missing, the ruling junta said.
The military government said it would observe a ceasefire from Wednesday until April 22 to make quake relief efforts easier, after other armed groups fighting the country's bloody four-year civil war made similar pledges. The junta said the ceasefire had “the aim of speeding up relief and reconstruction efforts, and maintaining peace and stability”.
Rights groups and several foreign governments had earlier condemned the leaders for continuing to carry out air strikes as the country grappled with the quake aftermath.
But the junta warned its opponents – a complex array of pro-democracy and ethnic minority armed groups – that it would still respond to attacks, acts of sabotage or “gathering, organising and expanding territory that would undermine peace”.
It also said that its chairman, Min Aung Hlaing, will travel to Bangkok on Thursday for a summit of South Asian countries plus Myanmar and Thailand, where he will discuss the quake response. Many nations have sent aid and teams of rescue workers to Myanmar since the quake, but heavily damaged infrastructure and patchy communications – as well as the rumbling civil war – have hampered efforts.
The World Health Organisation has flagged a rising risk of cholera and other diseases in the worst-affected areas of Mandalay, Sagaing and the capital of Naypyitaw, while it prepared $1 million of relief supplies, including body bags.
But conditions could get even tougher for the huge relief effort, after weather officials warned that unseasonal rain forecast from Sunday to April 11 could threaten the areas hit hardest by the quake. The tremor worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, with more than 3 million people displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.
More than 1,550 international rescuers were operating alongside locals on Thursday, according to a statement from the military. Rescue supplies and equipment have been sent by 17 countries
The weather extremes will add to the challenges faced by aid and rescue groups, which have called for access to all affected areas despite the strife of civil war.
The military has struggled to run Myanmar since its return to power in a 2021 coup that unseated the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The generals have been internationally isolated since the takeover and Myanmar's economy and basic services, including health care, have been reduced to tatters amid the strife.
On Wednesday, state-run MRTV said a unilateral government ceasefire would take immediate effect for 20 days to support relief efforts after the quake, but warned authorities would “respond accordingly” if rebels launched attacks.
The move came after a major rebel alliance declared a ceasefire on Tuesday to assist the humanitarian effort.
Nearly a week after the quake, searchers in neighbouring Thailand hunting for survivors are combing a mountain of debris left after an under-construction tower in Bangkok collapsed. Rescuers are using mechanical diggers and bulldozers to break up 100 tonnes of concrete to locate any survivors after the disaster that killed 15 people, with 72 missing.
The overall death toll in Bangkok stands at 22, with 35 injured.
With reporting from agencies...
