The UN decries ongoing combat in Myanmar as earthquake relief faces big challenges

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BANGKOK (AP) — Human rights experts for the United Nations are expressing urgent concern about ongoing military operations in Myanmar’s civil war, despite ceasefires called by major parties to facilitate relief efforts after the country’s devastating March 28 earthquake.

At the same time, a new U.N. report said that because of the earthquake, the Southeast Asian country is facing increased humanitarian needs while a food shortage and a health crisis appear to be looming.

“At a moment when the sole focus should be on ensuring humanitarian aid gets to disaster zones, the military is instead launching attacks,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights Office in Geneva said Friday. “Since the earthquake, military forces have reportedly carried out over 120 attacks – more than half of them after their declared ceasefire was due to have gone into effect on 2 April.”

The U.N. agency said: “We call on the military authorities to remove any and all obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance and to cease military operations."

The death toll from the 7.7 magnitude quake and aftershocks reached 3,689, with 5,020 injured, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for the military government, said Friday.

“The devastating earthquakes that struck Myanmar on 28 March have caused widespread death, human suffering and destruction—aggravating an already alarming humanitarian crisis,” declared a U.N. Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan released Friday.

“Over 6.3 million people are in immediate need of humanitarian assistance and protection as a result of the earthquakes, including 4.3 million people who were already in need across the affected areas and now require even greater support, and an additional 2 million people who require urgent assistance and protection due to the earthquakes."

It also warned that the quake hit Myanmar's main food-producing regions, “destroying fields, irrigation, and grain stores. Millions of livestock are at risk, and farmers now face the loss of both their harvest and their only source of income."

With disease already spreading, Myanmar is also at risk of a health emergency, especially as nearly 70 health facilities have been damaged, and there are severe shortages of medical supplies said the U.N. plan.

“Cases of diarrhea are rising, children and older people are falling ill from the heat, and concerns about cholera are growing, especially where bodies remain buried under the rubble in this extreme heat,” it said.

Myanmar’s military government and its battlefield opponents, which include pro-democracy fighters and ethnic minority guerrilla forces, have been trading accusations over alleged violations of ceasefire declarations each had declared to ease earthquake relief efforts.

Reports of continued fighting are widespread, with the army receiving the most criticism for continuing aerial bombing, according to independent Myanmar media and eyewitnesses.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army’s 2021 takeover ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, which led to nationwide peaceful protests that escalated into armed resistance and what now amounts to civil war.

The U.N. Human Rights Office's statement noted that most of the army’s attacks “have involved aerial and artillery strikes, including in areas impacted by the earthquake.”

“Numerous strikes have been reported in populated areas, many of them appearing to amount to indiscriminate attacks and to breach the principle of proportionality in international humanitarian law.”

The statement echoed points made late Thursday by Tom Andrews, the U.N.’s independent Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.

“The Security Council should urgently consider a resolution that demands that all parties to the conflict in Myanmar cease offensive military operations and that the junta immediately end its human rights violations and obstruction of humanitarian relief efforts,” Andrews said in a press statement.

He described it as unfortunate but unsurprising that the army violated its own ceasefire “by launching dozens of new attacks with devastating results.”

“I have received reports of humanitarian workers being stopped, interrogated and extorted at military checkpoints,” Andrews said. “The junta has blocked access to opposition-controlled areas, including in Sagaing Region, which was severely impacted by the earthquake. Junta soldiers opened fire on a convoy by the Red Cross Society of China.”

“The 28 March earthquake is the latest in a litany of tragedies suffered by the people of Myanmar over the past four years,” Andrews said.