Myanmar junta declares temporary ceasefire after earthquake as four pulled alive from rubble

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

The announcement by the military’s high command was reported on the state television channel MRTV, which said the truce would run until 22 April and was aimed at showing compassion for people affected by last Friday’s disaster.

It followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule. Those groups must refrain from attacking the state or regrouping or else the military will take “necessary” measures, the army’s statement said.

It came as 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 at midday on 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.

It comes amid civil war in Myanmar, making a dire humanitarian crisis even worse.

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 UN.

Two of the major armed resistance forces fighting the military, which seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, had announced ceasefires to facilitate the humanitarian response to the earthquake, though the military initially did not relent in its attacks.

In the capital Naypyidaw, 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 onto a gurney nearly 108 hours after he was trapped.

Shirtless and covered in dust, he appeared weak but conscious in a video released by the local fire brigade, as he was fitted with an IV drip and taken away.

MRTV reported later in the day that another man was saved from the same building, more than 121 hours after the quake struck. Both men are aged 26.

Another man was rescued by a team of Malaysian and local crews from a collapsed guesthouse in the Sagaing township, near the epicentre of the earthquake close to Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay.

The earthquake also rocked neighbouring Thailand, causing the collapse of a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok.

One body was removed from the rubble early on Wednesday, taking the death toll in Bangkok to 22, with 35 injured, primarily at the construction site.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance, one of a powerful group of militias that has taken a large area of the country from the military, announced a unilateral one-month ceasefire on Tuesday to assist the humanitarian response.

The shadow opposition National Unity Government founded by politicians ousted in 2021 had already called a ceasefire for its forces.

The announcements had put pressure on the military government to follow suit.

Countries have pledged millions in assistance to help Myanmar and humanitarian aid organisations with the monumental task ahead.

Most of the details so far have come from Mandalay, which was near the epicentre of the earthquake, and Naypyidaw, about 165 miles north of Mandalay.

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

In Singu township, about 40 miles north of Mandalay, 27 gold miners were killed in a collapse, the independent Democratic Voice of Burma reported.