A week after the devastating earthquake that shook Myanmar, the scale of casualties and destruction in the war-torn country still remains unclear. The 7.7-magnitude quake on Friday, the world’s most powerful since the ruinous tremors that hit Turkey and Syria in 2023, struck close to its second-largest city Mandalay and also hit neighbouring Thailand.
The secretive military regime, which is denying access to journalists and hampering international aid efforts, now puts the death toll at over 3,000 and rising. The real figures are likely to be far higher. The quake worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, with more than 3 million people displaced from their homes and some 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the UN.
Key infrastructure has been devastated with thousands of buildings collapsed – the World Health Organisation reports that one in three houses in the town of Sagaing, 15 kilometres from the epicentre, have been destroyed. Four hospitals and one health centre had been completely destroyed while more have been damaged.
The army has at last also joined resistance groups in calling a temporary ceasefire in the ongoing civil war until April 22nd to allow humanitarian aid to get to those who need it. Aid and assistance has been dispatched from 17 countries.
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Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, seized power in 2021 from the democratically-elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a bloody civil war which has killed thousands and degraded hospitals, roads and electricity supplies. The military, accused of multiple war crimes by the UN, is believed to control less than half the country, with other areas still contested or held by ethnic armed groups or resistance forces.
The quake could hardly have come at a worse moment. Decades of repressive military rule and internal insurgencies have undermined the country’s development and ability to respond to such a “natural” catastrophe. Nature’s brutality has been compounded and magnified by all too human action.
