As the death toll mounts and time runs out to save victims buried in the wreckage of Myanmar's second-most powerful recorded earthquake, humanitarian organizations are rushing to provide whatever help they can while appealing to the international community for money and support.
Speaking to journalists from Yangon on Tuesday, Julia Rees, UNICEF's deputy representative in Myanmar, says the immense destruction from last Friday's 7.7-magnitude quake, the nation's second-most powerful after an 8-magnitude quake in May 1912, adds "another layer of crisis" on top of the dire situation that millions of children and their families already faced.
“Entire communities have been flattened. Children and families are sleeping in the open, with no homes to return to. I met children who were in shock after witnessing their homes collapse or the death of family members. Some have been separated from their parents. Others are still unaccounted for," she says. "And yet, this crisis is still unfolding. The tremors are continuing. Search and rescue operations are ongoing. Bodies are still being pulled from the rubble."
Seventy-two hours after the earthquake struck the Mandalay and Sagaing regions, as well as the capital city, Naypyitaw, and southern Shan State, Myanmar’s military government reported the confirmed death toll exceeded 2,000, with hundreds missing and thousands more injured.
As rescue workers comb through the rubble, those numbers are expected to rise exponentially. The U.S. Geological Survey's predictive modeling shows the death count could exceed 10,000 people.
Homes, schools, hospitals, bridges, power lines, apartments and offices were damaged or destroyed. Buddhist monasteries, temples, pagodas and other religious shrines are destroyed. Scores of injured people are being treated in outdoor hospital wards hurriedly set up under tents and tarps.
During the day, homeless survivors of the quake deal with dangerous heat; at night, they’re preyed on by swarms of mosquitoes. Across the affected areas, authorities say, access to clean water, food, fuel, shelter, electricity, telecommunications, medicine and money remains critically low.
That did not stop military leaders from adding to the destruction with attacks on its armed opponents. The junta conducted at least 21 airstrikes and artillery attacks since Friday’s earthquake across Sagaing, Magwe, Shan, Kachin, Rakhine and Karenni regions, The Irrawaddy, an independent news site published by exiled Myanmar journalists, reported, adding that on Tuesday alone, the junta conducted at least five attacks.
On Wednesday, however, the junta declared a three-week ceasefire against armed opposition groups, which proposed the arrangement to allow rescue operations to deal with the quake's devastation. A statement by the military said the truce would last until April 22.
International aid efforts are complicated not only by the widespread destruction but by years of civil war and efforts by Myanmar’s junta to insulate the country, formerly known as Burma, from the West and western influences. Government corruption and organized crime are rife, and some fear aid money could be siphoned off or diverted to the military.
The former British colony Burma's transition to independence began in July 1947 but starting in 1962, the nation endured five decades of military-led isolation. The junta allowed Nobel laureate and leader of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement Aung San Suu Kyi to take power in 2015 as the U.S. and other Western governments eased up on economic restrictions.
The junta seized power again in 2021, but escalating armed resistance, particularly by ethnic rebels in northern Myanmar, has tested its grip on power – and the quake could hasten that in a nation that lacks a free flow of information and puts significant weight on superstition and omens.
'Without funding we cannot do what we need to do'
The United Nations is appealing to the international community for help and counties such as Russia, China and India are stepping up, sending aid and teams of rescue workers. The United States, traditionally a global leader in emergency response, is doing little. U.S. President Donald Trump, who makes no secret of his disdain for other nations, pledged a mere $2 million and says Washington will send a small team of experts.
"The system we built over decades to respond to crises like this is in shambles. We used to lead the world. Now we’re barely showing up," a former official with the now largely defunct U.S. Agency for International Development told The Associated Press.
China, on the other hand, quickly filled the void created by Trump’s rapid dismantling of the U.S. foreign aid network. By providing a reported $14 million in aid and deploying over 400 field workers, Beijing elevated its standing in Southeast Asia and garnered praise from Myanmar’s junta.
Trump’s cuts in U.S. foreign aid not only affect immediate disaster response but also ongoing humanitarian programs in Myanmar. For instance, the World Food Program announced cuts in aid for over 1 million people there due to funding shortages exacerbated by U.S. aid cuts.
"Without funding we cannot do what we need to do," says Michael Dunford, WFP's director for Myanmar. "We cannot meets the needs of the people of Myanmar."
The earthquake is pushing the country’s health care system to the limit. The World Health Organization said on Tuesday many of the country's hospitals and other health facilities are damaged and operating with limiting capacity, overwhelmed with the surge in patients, while health care workers and their families also have been affected by the earthquake.
WHO reports a growing shortage of food, clean water and medicine in some areas and says that shelter is a critical issue since many people are homeless. Extreme heat in the area brings a high risk of heatstroke, particularly among vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children.
UNICEF calls Myanmar "one of the most complex humanitarian emergencies globally." Even before the earthquake, more than 6.5 million children were in need of assistance, with 1-in-3 displaced people a child.
"This earthquake is another blow to the children in Myanmar, many of whom were already living through conflict, displacement and deprivation," says UNICEF chief Catherine Russell, a former White House aide to U.S. president Joe Biden. "Needs are massive and rising by the hour."
