Myanmar’s junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will leave his disaster-stricken country for a rare trip to a regional summit this week, Thailand said, as aid groups called for restrictions to be eased to reach more survivors of a devastating earthquake.
The 7.7 magnitude quake, one of the strongest to hit Myanmar in a century, jolted a region that is home to 28 million people, toppling buildings, flattening communities and leaving many without food, water and shelter.
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 military takeover has seen the economy and basic services including healthcare reduced to tatters amid an outbreak of civil war.
The death toll from the quake rose to 2,886 on Wednesday, state media reported.
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In neighbouring Thailand, the death toll from the earthquake rose to 22 on Wednesday as a search effort in the rubble of a skyscraper under construction in the capital, Bangkok, entered its fifth day.
Mohammed Riyas, Myanmar director of the International Red Cross, said humanitarian needs were staggering with hospitals overwhelmed, medicine in short supply and risks of water-borne diseases growing.
“It may be weeks before we understand the full extent of destruction caused by this earthquake as communication network lines are down and transport is disrupted,” he said.
“People require urgent medical care, clean drinking water, tents, food and other basic necessities. Providing life-saving health services is critical.”
Thailand confirmed Min Aung Hlaing would leave Myanmar to join a summit of mostly south Asian countries in Bangkok on Friday – an uncommon foreign trip for a general who is regarded as a pariah by many countries and is the subject of Western sanctions and an International Criminal Court investigation.
The junta boss is barred from attending summits of the southeast Asian bloc Asean.
Still, some analysts say the earthquake and this week’s meeting, which will include leaders of neighbours Thailand, India and Bangladesh, could boost Min Aung Hlaing’s legitimacy as he forges ahead with a December election widely expected to perpetuate military rule.
The junta has been accused by human rights groups of slowing humanitarian efforts by maintaining tight security measures in some hard-hit quake areas.
In an incident underlining the challenge of delivering relief at a time of civil war, the junta said its troops fired warning shots after a Chinese Red Cross convoy failed to pull over as it travelled in a conflict zone. Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said the group had not informed authorities of its travel.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the aid team and supplies were safe and called on all parties in Myanmar to ensure the safety of rescuers, adding it was necessary to keep relief routes “open and unobstructed”.
The military has remained on a war footing despite Myanmar’s worst disaster in decades and has conducted air strikes, according to a rebel group and Amnesty International.
Min Aung Hlaing said on Tuesday the military had halted its offensives but unspecified rebels were planning to exploit the disaster and preparing to attack. He said the armed forces would “respond accordingly”.
On Tuesday, a major rebel alliance declared a unilateral ceasefire to support the humanitarian effort.
Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar, said the junta’s offensives must stop.
“Min Aung Hlaing has described ongoing junta attacks in the midst of Myanmar’s suffering as ‘necessary protective measures’. They are neither necessary nor protective. They are outrageous and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms by world leaders,” Mr Andrews said on X.
Information has long been hard to obtain from areas like Sagaing in central Myanmar because of a junta internet and mobile phone blackout imposed as part of the conflict, which activists have demanded be lifted following the earthquake.
The military has rejected requests from international journalists to cover the earthquake devastation, citing the lack of water, electricity and hotels.
“Soldiers are everywhere in the town,” a man who travelled to Sagaing, near the epicentre of the quake, told Reuters. “They are there for security, not for rescue. They check every vehicle.”
New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the junta to allow unfettered access for humanitarian aid and lift curbs impeding aid agencies, saying donors should channel aid through independent groups rather than only junta authorities.
The United Nations said it had $12 million (€11 million) in emergency funding for food, shelter, water, sanitation, mental health support and other services.
A woman in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, told Reuters authorities were building a stage for this month’s Thingyan water festival, though many people were homeless, with bodies left under collapsed buildings. − Reuters
