6/6/2025 Myanmar (International Christian Concern) — The military junta ruling Myanmar announced this week that it would extend a temporary ceasefire, originally established in early April, to June 30. A massive earthquake struck the country in late March, killing at least 3,700 and necessitating extensive relief work in hard-hit civilian areas. 

Opposition militias agreed to the extended ceasefire, creating hope for improved humanitarian conditions in June despite regular junta violations of the ceasefire up to now. In the first three weeks of the ceasefire alone, the U.N. tracked at least 172 junta attacks, including airstrikes and artillery assaults. 

The acclaimed open-source research group Bellingcat documented that at least 22 villages were bombed by the junta in violation of the ceasefire agreement. 

While opposition leaders and international observers condemned the attacks, the junta’s unjustified attacks hardly came as a surprise to those familiar with the decades-long conflict. 

Just hours after the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck on March 28, the junta began bombing civilians as they scrambled to rescue people from the rubble. Military planes bombed northern Shan state less than three hours after the earthquake, with more strikes following soon after in Karen state, the quake’s epicenter, Sagaing, and in areas close to the Thai border. 

The fact that the military, known locally as the Tatmadaw, would bomb civilians while they were working to rescue each other from the rubble of an earthquake is “nothing short of incredible,” Tom Andrews, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, told the BBC. 

It took days for the junta to announce a ceasefire. In contrast, the National Unity Government — which opposes the junta — announced that its militia forces would immediately begin a two-week pause in areas impacted by the earthquake to facilitate humanitarian activities. 

China and Russia, longtime allies of the Tatmadaw, have helped to provide emergency relief services in the wake of the earthquake, but have not commented on the continued bombings. Both countries have provided consistent military and economic support for the junta despite sweeping international sanctions. 

The United States recently cut back on assistance and development aid to Myanmar as part of broader cuts to international aid, and reports indicate that it has not matched China and Russia’s emergency relief assistance since the earthquake. 

In March, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a report criticizing the country for its systematic repression of religious minorities and urging the international community to increase attention to the plight of the persecuted in Myanmar. 

“The country has seen the displacement of over 3.5 million people in recent years,” the USCIRF report noted, “including more than 90,000 in Christian-majority Chin State, 237,200 in Kachin State, and one million Muslim-majority Rohingya refugees.” March’s earthquake and the airstrikes that followed have only increased these high levels of displacement. 

Though a strong majority of the population is ethnic Burman, and an even greater percentage is Buddhist, the communities that make up the remainder are well-established, well-organized, and for the most part predate the formation of the modern state by centuries. 

In many cases, Myanmar’s ethnic minorities have taken on a distinct religious identity as well. About 20% to 30% of ethnic Karen are Christians, while other groups — such as the Chin — are more than 90% Christian. This overlap of ethnic and religious identity has created a volatile situation for believers. 

Representing an extremist interpretation of Buddhism, the Burmese military has a long history of violence against the people of Myanmar, including against ethnic and religious minorities like the Muslim-majority Rohingya and Christian-majority Chin. 

The junta is known to abduct children, forcing them to walk ahead of their troops through minefields. In many cases, their victims are members of ethnic and religious minority communities fighting back against the atrocities of a military that has waged a decades-long war of ethnic and religious cleansing. 

Despite this support, experts believe that the Burmese military is atrophying rapidly, with as few as 150,000 personnel remaining after the loss of about 21,000 through casualties or desertions since the 2021 coup. This number is significantly smaller than previous estimates of 300,000 to 400,000 and calls into question the junta’s ability to sustain its nationwide military campaign, especially after a series of high-profile losses in recent years.

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