Myanmar's military declares a ceasefire to ease quake relief as deaths pass 3,000

BANGKOK — Myanmar’s ruling military declared a temporary ceasefire in the country’s civil war Wednesday to facilitate relief efforts following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 3,000 people.

The surprise announcement by military leaders who also head the unelected government came late Wednesday on state television MRTV, which said the halt in fighting would run until April 22 to show compassion for people affected by Friday’s quake.

The announcement followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule, and the military warned that those groups must refrain from attacking the state and regrouping, or else face “necessary” measures.

The resistance forces have also reserved the right to fight in self-defense.

Earlier Wednesday, rescuers pulled two men alive from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar’s capital, a third from a guesthouse in another city, and another in the country’s second city, Mandalay, five days after the quake. But most teams were finding only bodies.

The quake hit midday Friday, toppling thousands of buildings, collapsing bridges and buckling roads. The death toll rose to 3,003 on Wednesday, with more than 4,500 people injured, MRTV reported. Local reports suggest much higher figures.

The quake worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis due to Myanmar’s civil war. More than 3 million people had been displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million were in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.

Dramatic rescue in Myanmar capital

In the capital, Naypyitaw, a team of Turkish and local rescue workers used an endoscopic camera to locate Naing Lin Tun on a lower floor of the damaged hotel where he worked. They pulled him gingerly through a hole jackhammered through a floor and loaded him on to a gurney nearly 108 hours after he was first trapped.

Shirtless and covered in dust, he appeared weak but conscious in a video released by the local fire department, as he was fitted with an IV drip and taken away. State-run MRTV reported later in the day that another man was saved from the same building, more than 121 hours after the quake struck. Both were age 26.

Another man, a 47-year-old primary school principal, was rescued by a team of Malaysian and local crews from a collapsed guesthouse in the Sagaing township, near the epicenter of the earthquake close to Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay, where a fourth rescue was reported Wednesday night.

The earthquake also rocked neighboring Thailand, causing the collapse of a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok. One body was removed from the rubble early Wednesday, raising the death total in Bangkok to 22 with 35 injured, primarily at the construction site.

Resistance groups have announced ceasefires

Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into significant armed resistance.

Ceasefires had been announced earlier this week by the People’s Defense Force, which is the armed wing of the shadow opposition National Unity Government, and the Three Brotherhood Alliance, a trio of ethnic minority guerrilla armies.

That had put pressure on the military government to follow suit, said Morgan Michaels, a Singapore-based analyst with the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

It’s too early to say whether a pause in fighting could lead to something longer lasting, he said. ‘’It would require very deft and active diplomacy to transform a humanitarian pause into something more lasting. And that’s not guaranteed,‘’ Morgans said.

Military leader due in Thailand

The military government was particularly vulnerable to bad publicity this week because its leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, was expected for a high-profile visit to a regional conference in the Thai capital Thursday.

It will be his first to a country other than his government’s main supporters and backers — China, Russia and Russia ally Belarus — since he attended another regional meeting in Indonesia in 2021.

Min Aung Hlaing and other senior leaders are shunned and sanctioned by many Western countries for their 2021 takeover and human rights abuses as they try to crush the resistance to their rule.

Claims of an attack on a Chinese Red Cross convoy

Before Wednesday’s ceasefire announcement, an opposition militia belonging to the Brotherhood Alliance reported that the military fired on a relief convoy of nine Chinese Red Cross vehicles late Tuesday in the northern part of Shan state.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army said that the Chinese Red Cross was bringing supplies to Mandalay and had reported its route to the military.

But Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the military government, said that the convoy hadn’t notified authorities of its route ahead of time, MRTV reported. While not mentioning the Red Cross, he said that security forces had fired into the air to deter a convoy that refused to stop.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun didn’t comment on the attack. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was looking into the matter.

More international aid heads to Myanmar

Countries have pledged millions in assistance to help Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations with the monumental task ahead, while also sending in specialist search and rescue teams and setting up field hospitals.

India and China, both neighbors of Myanmar that compete for influence there, have been especially quick and generous with assistance. Multiple other countries have sent teams, including Turkey, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.

The U.S. government has pledged $2 million in emergency aid and sent a three-person team to assess how best to respond given drastic cuts to U.S. foreign assistance.

United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that continuing aftershocks are complicating humanitarian response efforts. In Mandalay City, many people are completely cut off from electricity and running water.

‘‘People affected continue to need urgent healthcare and medical supplies, safe drinking water, food and other critical items,‘’ Dujarric said. ‘’Tents and temporary shelter are needed, as well as latrines and other hygiene items, to prevent disease outbreaks.‘’

Extent of devastation is still unclear

Most of the details so far have come from Mandalay, which was near the epicenter of the earthquake, and Naypyitaw, about 270 kilometers (165 miles) north of Mandalay.

Many areas are without power, telephone or cellphone connections, and difficult to reach by road, but more reports are beginning to trickle in.

In Singu township, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Mandalay, 27 gold miners were killed in a cave-in, the independent Democratic Voice of Burma reported.

In the area of Inle Lake, a popular tourist destination northeast of the capital, many people died when homes built on wooden stilts in the water collapsed in the earthquake, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

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Matthew Lee in Washington, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Jintamas Saksornchai and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.