The head of the Myanmar junta, Min Aung Hlaing, is in Thailand for a regional summit While his country turns out to be an earthquake that 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.
Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Bangkok on Thursday, according to AFP, On the eve of a summit which will bring together the leaders of the seven countries that brought the Bay of Bengal.
His participation, which was confirmed earlier by a spokesperson for the Myanmar army, 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.
In Myanmar, many areas with earthquakes have not yet been affected by the authorities, which means that the figures in the number of deaths are unlikely to be exact.
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 a temporary cease-fire Late Wednesday to accelerate these efforts, after rejecting 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.
According to a spokesperson for Bangkok, a spokesman for the Thai ministry of the Ministry of Affairs, from Min Aung Hlaing, is also scheduled to speak to Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra in Bangkok in Bangkok.
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.
