Myanmar earthquake death toll at 3,354, junta leader returns from summit

(Forelines) – The death toll from the recent devastating earthquake in Myanmar has reached to 3,354, with 4,850 wounded and 220 missing, according to state media reports on Saturday. During a visit United Nations aid chief acknowledged humanitarian and community organizations for leading the assistance response, as per Reuters report.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the military government, was back in the capital Naypyitaw following a rare foreign tour to attend a summit in Bangkok of South and Southeast Asian countries, where Min Aung Hlaing also met separately with the leaders of Bhutan, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Sri Lanka.

Min Aung Hlaing confirmed to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi the junta’s plans to hold “free and fair” elections in December, according to Reuters quoted the Myanmar state media report.

PM Narendra Modi urged for a post-quake ceasefire in Myanmar’s civil dispute to be made permanent, and stated the elections required to be “inclusive and credible”, according to an Indian foreign affairs spokesperson on Friday.

Critics have dismissed the upcoming election as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxy candidates.

Since toppling the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the Myanmar’s military has faced significant difficulties in governing the country, leaving the economy and vital public services, such as healthcare, in tatters, a situation worsened by the March 28 earthquake.

The civil dispute that followed the military has displaced over 3 million people, with extensive food insecurity and more than a third of the population in require of humanitarian support, says the United Nations.

Tom Fletcher, U.N. aid chief spent Friday night in Myanmar’s second-biggest city Mandalay, near the epicentre of the earthquake, posting on X that humanitarian and community organizations had led the response to the earthquake with “courage, skill and determination”.

“Many themselves lost everything, and yet kept heading out to support survivors,” Tom Fletcher stated.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated on Friday the junta was restricting support supplies to earthquake-hit regions where communities did not back its rule. The United Nations office stated it was investigating 53 reported attacks by the junta against rivals, such as airstrikes, of which 16 were following the ceasefire was announced on Wednesday.

A junta spokesman did not answer to requests for comment.