CNN
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Myanmar’s ruling military government has announced a temporary ceasefire in operations against armed opposition groups to aid recovery efforts following Friday’s devastating earthquake.
“For paying sympathy to the victims of the earthquake across the country, for providing the effective rescue operation and rehabilitation,” the truce would last until April 22, state-run MRTV said.
More than 2,700 people have died in Myanmar following the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country in years, the government says. Hundreds more remain missing, meaning the death toll is expected to rise.
Aid agencies have warned that the destruction caused by the 7.7 magnitude quake is leading to a medical crisis.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday that people have lost access to health care and clean water.
Field Coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Mikhael De Souza said that the lack of clean water could give rise to diseases.
“Water, both in quantity and in quality, is immensely lacking in the whole country and most specifically in the regions affected by the earthquake,” De Souza said in a voice note on Wednesday. “The lack of water is creating an issue in terms of immediate survival, but could also create an issue in terms epidemics in the future that we definitely want to avoid.”
The anti-regime authority Sagaing Federal Unit Hluttaw said over the weekend that bodies which had been recovered from under the rubble spread “a foul odor that poses serious health risks.”
The country has also been embroiled in civil war for four years sparked by a bloody and economically destructive military coup, which has seen junta forces battle rebel groups across the country.
The coup and ensuing conflict has battered its health infrastructure, leaving it ill-equipped to deal with major natural disasters.
Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) – an offshoot of lawmakers deposed in the coup – declared over the weekend a temporary pause on offensive military operations, “except for defensive actions,” to help facilitate rescue operations following Friday’s earthquake. It said the pause would last two weeks from March 30.
But Amnesty International reported Tuesday that the military junta continued air strikes in the days following the quake, citing testimony it had gathered from people on the ground.
Swathes of the country lie outside the control of the military junta and are a run by a patchwork of ethnic rebels and militias, making compiling reliable information extremely difficult.
MRTV also reported Wednesday that chairman of the State Administration Council (SAC) Min Aung Hlaing will attend a regional summit in Thailand from April 3 to 4 to discuss the response to the earthquake.
CNN’s Heather Law, Angus Watson, Teele Rebane, Sana Noor Haq, Ross Adkin, Alex Stambaugh, Rhea Mogul and Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.