The death toll from Myanmar’s catastrophic earthquake has risen to 3,354, with 4,850 injured and 220 reported missing, according to state media on Saturday. Meanwhile, the UN aid chief commended humanitarian and community groups for their courageous response in the wake of the disaster.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, leader of the military government, has returned to the capital, Naypyitaw, following a rare foreign trip to a summit in Bangkok featuring leaders from South and Southeast Asian nations. During the summit, he also held separate meetings with the leaders of Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and India.
State media reported that Min Aung Hlaing reaffirmed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the junta’s intention to conduct “free and fair” elections in December. Modi, on his part, urged for the post-earthquake ceasefire in Myanmar’s ongoing civil war to be made permanent and stressed that the elections must be “inclusive and credible,” according to an Indian foreign affairs spokesperson.
Critics, however, have dismissed the planned election as merely a facade designed to keep military generals in power through proxies. Since the coup in 2021 that ousted the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s military has faced enormous challenges, leaving the economy and essential services like healthcare in disarray—a situation worsened by the earthquake on March 28.
The ensuing civil war has displaced more than 3 million people, with over a third of the population now in need of humanitarian aid, and widespread food insecurity reported by the UN.
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher spent Friday night in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city near the earthquake’s epicenter, posting on X (formerly Twitter) that local humanitarian and community groups had led the quake response with “courage, skill and determination.” He added, “Many themselves lost everything, and yet kept heading out to support survivors.”
However, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported on Friday that the junta has been restricting aid supplies to quake-affected areas where local communities have not expressed support for its rule. The office is currently investigating 53 reported attacks by the junta on opponents, including 16 airstrikes that occurred after a ceasefire was declared on Wednesday.
A junta spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
