(Reuters) – Myanmar’s ruling military has extended a temporary ceasefire in its conflict with rebels to April 30, in a move to expedite relief and rebuilding efforts following a devastating earthquake last month, state media reported on Tuesday.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who chairs the 10-member ASEAN regional bloc, last week held rare high-level talks with junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and a key resistance group in an effort to pause the ongoing fighting and support humanitarian aid operations.
The 7.7 magnitude earthquake late last month, which had its epicenter near Myanmar’s Mandalay city, has killed more than 3,700 people, flattened communities and crippled infrastructure in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since a 2021 military coup that unseated an elected civilian government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a massive protest movement that evolved into a nationwide civil war.
State media said Min Aung Hlaing extended an initial 20-day ceasefire, called by the junta on April 2, “out of sympathy and understanding for the people of the country affected by the Mandalay earthquake”.
Despite the early April ceasefire announcement, the junta continued military operations in some areas, including airstrikes, according to the United Nations and other groups.
(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Writing by Martin Petty and Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Peter Graff)
