BANGKOK – Desperate rescue workers were on March 29 racing to find survivors of the earthquake that shattered central Myanmar, with many grappling with a monumental disaster in a nation already wracked by civil war.
The official death toll of the earthquake surpassed 1,600 people, the country’s military leaders said.
The powerful earthquake struck on March 28 near Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, and volunteer emergency workers there combed through the ruins of apartments, monasteries and mosques in search of anyone left alive.
“There are at least a hundred people still trapped inside,” said Thaw Zin, a volunteer who was sitting in front of a destroyed condominium. “We are trying our best with what we have.”
The death toll is expected to rise steeply, although Myanmar’s military junta, which overthrew an elected government in 2021, has sought to restrict what information leaves the country. Preliminary modeling by the US Geological Survey suggested the number of deaths could be more than 10,000.
The earthquake has raised questions about whether Myanmar’s military rulers can manage to stay in power, having already lost ground to rebels amid a bloody civil war that has left nearly 20 million of the country’s roughly 54 million people without enough food or shelter even before the quake, according to United Nations officials.
Even after the disaster struck, Myanmar military jets dropped bombs on the evening of March 28 on a rebel-held village, Naung Lin, in northern Shan state. “I just can’t believe they did airstrikes at the same time as the earthquake,” said Lway Yal Oo, a Naung Lin resident.
Anger against the military was rising on March 29 in the wake of the disaster. Thaw Zin said that soldiers and police officers had turned up at disaster sites but did nothing to help. “They are here hanging around with their guns,” he said. “We don’t need guns. We need helping hands and kind hearts.”
But the junta has also acknowledged the enormous extent of the catastrophe. The military government declared a state of emergency in six regions of Myanmar, including rebel-controlled areas. The army’s leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, surveyed disaster sites on March 28 and visited a makeshift hospital in Naypyitaw, about 270km south of Mandalay, state media showed.
The junta, although isolated and under sanctions from much of the world, also made an extraordinary appeal for help – a call that some began to answer despite the dizzying logistical obstacles in getting that aid to survivors.
Although President Donald Trump said the United States would “be helping,” his administration has moved to all but eliminate the main US agency for distributing aid. NYTIMES
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