The head of the Junta of Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing, will go to Thailand for a regional summit while his country withdraws from an earthquake which killed thousands and left cities in ruins.
Last Friday, the earthquake in the center of Myanmar killed 3,085 people and injured 4,715, said the junta. Hundreds of others are lacking and the toll should increase.
A spokesperson for the Myanmar army said that Min Aung Hlaing is expected to fly on Thursday in Bangkok, on the eve of a summit that will bring together the leaders of the seven countries that brought Bengal Bay.
His participation will be unusual because the sanctioned leaders are generally prohibited from these events.
The host of Thailand, where the earthquake was felt and killed 21 people, proposed that the leaders publish a joint declaration on the disaster. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka are also part of the summit.
Countries around the world have sent myanmar assistance and rescue teams from the earthquake, but poor infrastructure and an in progress civil war have complicated rescue efforts.
The junta announced on Wednesday a temporary ceasefire to accelerate these efforts, after having rejected the proposals of armed ethnic rebel groups earlier.
Before that, the soldiers had continued its air strikes in areas held by rebels, including those seriously struck by the earthquake.
Tuesday evening, the troops opened fire in a convoy of the Chinese Red Cross with emergency supplies. The junta said the troops drawn after the convoy refused to stop despite doing so.
Myanmar was seized by a bloody civil war since the military seized power in 2021, which led to the rise of armed resistance which was fighting alongside the armed ethnic groups, some of which have been fighting the army for decades.
Years of violence have paralyzed the economy, supercharged inflation and plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis.
Now the earthquake has aggravated the crisis. Humanitarian groups have urged the junta to raise the remaining obstacles to help.
The UN also urged the world community to speed up help before the monsoon season strikes in about a month.
