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Washington Post
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Myanmar quake death toll rises past 1,600 as damage comes into focus
The death toll in the powerful earthquake that struck central Myanmar on Friday has jumped to more than 1,600, the country's ruling military junta said Saturday, with an additional 3,408 injured. At least 10 more were killed in neighboring Thailand, where far-reaching tremors brought down a skyscraper in Bangkok, burying dozens of workers. The scale of devastation in Myanmar only began to come into focus Saturday as limited communications returned to the most affected areas. International aid began to trickle into the isolated country even as concerns remained over the junta's willingness to allow humanitarian groups to operate freely amid its ongoing civil war with pro-democracy and ethnic rebels. Though Myanmar lies in a major seismic belt, the 7.7-magnitude earthquake, which struck at the relatively shallow depth of 6 miles, is one of the strongest that the country has seen in decades and is shaping up to be among its deadliest. As many as 20 million people reside in the areas seriously affected by the quake, and many are now living without shelter or access to clean water, according to preliminary estimates from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Damage has been most acute in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-most-populous city and the former capital of the Burmese royal empire, which was about 11 miles from the quake's epicenter, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At least 694 people were killed and 1,670 injured in the Mandalay region, military officials said Saturday. An independent network of medics, which partnered with a nonprofit, Data for Myanmar, similarly said hundreds were killed in Mandalay based on preliminary counts. There's been 'significant structural damage' in the city, including the 'collapse of multistory buildings, including religious sites,' the organizations said. Cars were lined up outside cemeteries in the city as families struggled to find space to bury the dead, residents said. The number of casualties could continue to grow significantly, according to predictive modeling by the U.S. Geological Survey. 'Death tolls are increasing each and every hour,' said Zin Mar Aung, minister of foreign affairs for the National Unity Government (NUG), a parallel administration made up of pro-democracy opposition leaders. The quake struck a swath of central Myanmar that includes areas that are junta-controlled, rebel-controlled and contested. After Mandalay, the second-worst-hit city appears to be the capital and seat of the junta, Naypyidaw, with at least 96 dead, said military officials. Ethnic rebel groups and pro-democracy groups said most of their command centers, in the country's jungled borderlands, sustained limited damage. After declaring a state of emergency in six regions, including Naypyidaw and Mandalay, the junta's military chief on Friday issued a rare appeal for international assistance, saying he was extending 'an open invitation' to nations willing to help. China on Saturday sent a disaster relief team of 37 people, according to the state-run CCTV. Singapore and Malaysia also sent disaster relief personnel, and India transported relief goods including tents and blankets to Yangon, authorities said. By Saturday night, at least three international search and rescue teams were working on the ground in Mandalay to extract survivors, said Annette Hearns, the deputy head for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar. Concerns remain over whether the junta will permit aid to reach those who need it, particularly in contested or rebel-controlled areas. The military in 2021 ousted a democratically elected government and violently quashed nationwide protests, sparking a civil war. In recent years, it has dramatically limited the movement of international aid groups inside Myanmar and, in previous disasters, prevented aid from reaching rebel-controlled areas, watchdog groups say. It has also blocked journalists and watchdog groups from entering the country, impairing independent assessments of major crises, including natural disasters. Though the regime has now promised access to international humanitarians, 'we have to be worried about whether this will be possible,' said Richard Horsey, a senior adviser to Myanmar for the International Crisis Group. 'We now have to test what this regime has said, which is that it has opened the doors to aid,' he said. In the hours after the quake, the military continued to carry out airstrikes in contested territory, said rebel leaders and watchdog groups. Michael Dunford, Myanmar's country director for the U.N. World Food Program, said the agency was asking the junta for full access to address food needs across the country. 'It'll be necessary to facilitate that if in fact we'll be asked to operate as required,' Dunford said in a call from Naypyidaw. The agency was also conducting a 'rapid needs assessment' and expected to have teams in Mandalay by Sunday. Mandalay's airport was battered during the quake and has suspended operations. Major highways to the city have been damaged, preventing large aid convoys from being able to enter. Much of the city is without electricity or internet, and many residents spent Friday night sleeping on the streets and in empty fields in fear of aftershocks, people told their families in patchy dispatches. 'It's like a death city,' Nat Khat, 34, said from a town outside Mandalay, adding that his parents inside the city told him no aid, either from international groups or the junta, had yet to be distributed. 'People are just helping one another,' he said. The pace of rescue efforts has also been painfully slow, some residents said. Rescue teams led by the junta are 'failing,' said Zin Mar Aung, the NUG official. Many government services across Myanmar have been crippled since the start of the military coup, when thousands of civil servants chose not to work for the junta-led administration and in some instances picked up arms to fight or decamped to rebel-controlled areas. Local nonprofits and civil society organizations that would have helped with relief efforts have also been shuttered. The NUG is looking to mobilize its network of aid groups to help with relief efforts but is wary these groups could be subject to arrest or violence by the junta. 'It's difficult to believe and trust the junta that our people will be safe,' Zin Mar Aung said.
Express Tribune
28-03-2025
- General
- Express Tribune
Deadly Myanmar quake shakes Southeast Asia, 81 feared trapped in Bangkok collapse
Rescue teams are seen at a construction site where a building collapsed in Bangkok on March 28, 2025, after an earthquake. A powerful earthquake rocked central Myanmar on March 28, buckling roads in capital Naypyidaw, damaging buildings and forcing people to flee into the streets in neighbouring Thailand. Photo: AFP Listen to article A powerful earthquake centred in Myanmar rocked Southeast Asia on Friday, killing several people and causing extensive damage, with rescuers in Bangkok searching for 81 people in the rubble of a collapsed building. At least three people were killed in the town of Taungoo in Myanmar when a mosque partially collapsed, witnesses said. Local media reported at least two people died and 20 were injured after a hotel collapsed in Aung Ban. The ruling military in Myanmar did not give any numbers for dead and wounded. The diplomatic spokesman for the parallel National Unity Government that opposes the junta said the quake killed at least 12 people and more deaths were likely in the Mandalay area it hit. Troops from the anti-junta militias, known as the People's Defence Forces, would provide humanitarian help, Zin Mar Aung told Reuters. In Thailand, the defence minister said rescuers were searching for 81 people trapped in the rubble of a skyscraper that was under construction and collapsed into a pile of rubble. Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said three people were killed at the building site. He warned of possible aftershocks but urged people to be calm and said the situation was largely under control. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which struck at lunchtime, was of 7.7 magnitude and at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). The epicentre was about 17 km from Mandalay, which has a population of about 1.5 million. The quake was followed by a powerful aftershock and several more moderate ones. 'We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking,' a Mandalay resident told Reuters. 'I witnessed a five-storey building collapse in front of my eyes. Everyone in my town is out on the road and no one dares to go back inside buildings.' The quake caused the collapse of buildings in five cities and towns, as well as a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway, Myanmar state media said. Images showed the destroyed Ava Bridge over the Irrawaddy River, its arches leaning into the water. The quake will further stretch Myanmar's ruling military, which is fighting against an armed uprising. The junta declared a state of emergency in multiple regions but provided no specifics of damage. 'The state will make inquiries on the situation quickly and conduct rescue operations along with providing humanitarian aid,' it said on Telegram. The Red Cross said roads, bridges and buildings had been damaged in Myanmar, and there were concerns for the state of large dams. Mandalay is Myanmar's ancient royal capital and at the centre of the country's Buddhist heartland. A Mandalay resident said destruction stretched across the whole city, and one neighbourhood, Sein Pan, was on fire. Roads were damaged, phone lines disrupted and there was no electricity, said the resident, who declined to be named. Local media outlet Myanmar Now posted images showing a clock tower had collapsed, and part of the wall by Mandalay Palace was in ruins. A witness, Htet Naing Oo, told Reuters that a tea shop had collapsed with several people trapped inside. 'We couldn't go in,' she said. 'The situation is very bad.' At least three people died after a mosque in Taungoo partially collapsed, two witnesses said. 'We were saying prayers when the shaking started… Three died on the spot,' one said. Local media reported a hotel in Aung Ban, in Shan state, crumbled into rubble, with the Democratic Voice of Burma reporting two people had died and 20 were trapped. Army-run MRTV reported that the quake toppled buildings, crushed cars and left huge fissures on roads across the capital Naypyitaw. Amnesty International said the earthquake could not have come at a worse time for Myanmar, given the number of displaced people, the existing need for relief aid, and cuts by the Trump administration to U.S. aid. Restricted media access meant a clear picture of the extent of damage and loss might not emerge for some time, the group's Myanmar researcher, Joe Freeman, said. Since overthrowing the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run the country, leaving the economy and basic services like healthcare in tatters. An armed opposition, comprising established ethnic armies and new resistance groups formed since the coup, has seized swathes of territory and driven the junta out of border areas, increasingly hemming it into the central lowlands. The fighting has displaced more than three million people in Myanmar, with widespread food insecurity and over a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations. The country has also been hit by natural disasters in recent years, including Typhoon Yagi last year and Cyclone Mocha in 2023, and the internationally isolated junta has struggled to respond adequately. Nyi Nyi Kyaw, a Myanmar academic at the University of Bristol, said the earthquake had struck 'at a moment when Myanmar is at its most vulnerable … in decades'. Civil society had largely fled following the coup and those community-based organisations that remained were unable to manage the disaster relief effort, he said. 'In essence, Myanmar is wholly unable to deal with the shock and its aftermath,' he said. Office tower shakes in Bangkok In the Thai capital, people ran out onto the streets in panic, many of them hotel guests in bathrobes and swimming costumes, as water cascaded down from an elevated pool at a luxury hotel, witnesses said. The Stock Exchange of Thailand suspended all trading activities for the Friday afternoon session. One office tower in downtown Bangkok swayed from side to side for at least two minutes, with doors and windows creaking loudly, witnesses said. 'At first, I didn't realise (it was an earthquake),' office worker Varunyou Armarttayakul told Reuters. 'But then I saw the table shaking, and the chair and computer started swaying, too…Part of the ceiling even collapsed — that's when I had to run out.' China's Xinhua news agency said strong tremors were felt in southwestern Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar, but there were no reports of casualties.
