Bangkok. United Nations human rights experts are raising urgent concerns over continued military operations in Myanmar’s civil war, despite ceasefires announced by major parties to facilitate earthquake relief following the devastating March 28 temblor.

A new UN report says the earthquake has significantly worsened humanitarian conditions in the Southeast Asian country, where a looming food shortage and mounting health crisis are adding to the challenges.

"At a moment when the sole focus should be on ensuring humanitarian aid gets to disaster zones, the military is instead launching attacks," said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva, on Friday. “Since the earthquake, military forces have reportedly carried out over 120 attacks—more than half of them after their declared ceasefire was supposed to take effect on April 2.”

The UN agency called on Myanmar’s military authorities to “remove any and all obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance and to cease military operations.”

The official death toll from the 7.7 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks stood at 3,649 as of Wednesday, with 5,018 people reported injured.

“The devastating earthquakes that struck Myanmar on March 28 have caused widespread death, human suffering, and destruction—aggravating an already alarming humanitarian crisis,” said the UN in a Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan released Friday.

The report estimates that over 6.3 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection, including 4.3 million who were already vulnerable in the affected areas and now require additional support, plus another 2 million newly affected by the disaster.

It warned that the quake struck key agricultural regions, destroying farmland, irrigation systems, and grain stores. “Millions of livestock are at risk, and farmers now face the loss of both their harvests and sole source of income,” the report noted.

With disease already spreading, Myanmar is also on the brink of a health emergency. Nearly 70 health facilities have been damaged, and there are severe shortages of medical supplies, the UN said. “Cases of diarrhea are rising, children and older people are falling ill from the heat, and concerns about cholera are growing—especially where bodies remain trapped under rubble in extreme temperatures,” it added.

Myanmar’s military government and its battlefield opponents, including pro-democracy forces and ethnic minority militias, have traded accusations of violating ceasefire pledges made to support earthquake relief efforts.

Fighting continues across several regions, with the military facing the most criticism for ongoing aerial bombings, according to independent Myanmar media and eyewitness accounts.

Myanmar has been in crisis since the 2021 military coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking peaceful protests that evolved into a civil conflict.

The UN Human Rights Office stated that most military attacks “have involved aerial and artillery strikes, including in areas impacted by the earthquake.” It said many strikes hit populated areas and may constitute indiscriminate attacks, violating international humanitarian law’s principle of proportionality.

Those concerns were echoed Thursday by Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar. He urged the UN Security Council to consider a resolution demanding an immediate halt to offensive military operations and an end to the junta’s obstruction of humanitarian aid.

“I have received reports of humanitarian workers being stopped, interrogated, and extorted at military checkpoints,” Andrews said. “The junta has blocked access to opposition-controlled areas, including Sagaing Region, which was severely hit by the quake. Junta soldiers opened fire on a convoy from the Red Cross Society of China.”

He added: “The March 28 earthquake is the latest in a litany of tragedies suffered by the people of Myanmar over the past four years.”