Myanmar earthquake toll reaches 3,600 as rescue operations wind down

Long-shot efforts to find survivors from Myanmar's devastating March 28 earthquake were winding down Monday, as rescue efforts are supplanted by increasing relief and recovery activity, with the death toll from the disaster hitting 3,600 and still climbing.

In the capital, Naypyitaw, people cleared debris and collected wood from their damaged houses under drizzling rain, and soldiers removed wreckage at some Buddhist monasteries.

Myanmar Fire Services Department said Monday that rescue teams had recovered 10 bodies from the rubble of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar's second biggest city. 

It said international rescuers from Singapore, Malaysia and India had returned to their countries after their work to find survivors was considered completed. The number of rescue teams operating in the residential areas of Naypyitaw has been steadily decreasing.

The 7.7 magnitude quake hit a wide swath of the country, causing significant damage to six regions and states. The earthquake left many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaged roads and bridges, making the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for the military government, said late Monday that the quake's death toll has reached 3,600, with 5,017 injured and 160 missing. He said search and rescue operations involved 1,738 personnel from 20 countries, and had helped find and extract 653 survivors.

He also said the quake has officially been named the Big Mandalay Earthquake to ensure consistency in future documentation and referencing. Previous significant earthquakes also received official names.

Heavy rains and winds disrupted rescue and relief operations on Saturday and added to the misery of the homeless forced to sleep in the open. The weather forecast for this week said scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible across the country.

Myanmar's military government and its battlefield opponents, meanwhile, have been trading accusations over alleged violations of ceasefire declarations each had declared to ease earthquake relief efforts.

Reports of continued fighting  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.

Although the military government and its armed opponents declared unilateral ceasefires for a temporary period, reports of continued fighting are widespread, with the army coming in for special attention for continuing aerial bombing, according to independent Myanmar media and eyewitnesses.

Independent confirmation of fighting is difficult because of the remoteness of the areas in which much of it takes place and restrictions on journalists.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance, a trio of powerful ethnic minority guerrilla armies, declared a unilateral temporary ceasefire on April 1, following an earlier declaration by the opposition National Unity Government, or NUG.

The NUG, which leads the pro-democracy resistance, said its armed wing, the People's Defence Force, would cease offensive actions for two weeks.

On Wednesday, the army announced a similar unilateral ceasefire, as did another ethnic minority group among its foes, the Kachin Independence Organization.

All sides reserved the right to act in self-defense.

The Ta'ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, a member of the powerful Three Brotherhood Alliance, charged in a Sunday statement on the Telegram messaging platform that the military conducted airstrikes, including dropping toxic gas bombs, on villages the guerrilla group occupied last year in the northern part of Shan state.

Declaring its ceasefire  Another member of the alliance, the Arakan Army, fighting in the western state of Rakhine, said Saturday that the military continued to launch daily counterattacks, aerial bombardments, shelling and naval attacks against its troops in two townships in Rakhine state, as well as in Ayeyarwady and Bago regions.

The group said it occupied a military base it had besieged on a strategic hill in Bago a day after declaring its ceasefire, but honoured its terms by failing to attack the army's retreating soldiers.

The shadow National Unity Government on Saturday accused the military of carrying out 63 airstrikes and artillery attacks since the earthquake, resulting in the deaths of 68 civilians, including one child and 15 women.

However, military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said in an audio message to journalists on Saturday that the groups in the Three Brotherhood Alliance and the Kachin Independence Army, as well as the Karen National Union in southeastern Myanmar and pro-democracy forces in the central Magway region and other groups violated the ceasefires by attacking the army.

We are carrying out relief and assistance efforts for the people affected by the earthquake. I am saying this to make everyone aware of the ceasefire violations at a time like this, Zaw Min Tun said.