Myanmar quake: a nation unprepared for disaster
By AFP
March 31, 2025
Myanmar's military chief Min Aung Hlaing rules a country battered by four years of civil war - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Ravaged by four years of civil war, Myanmar is ill-prepared to cope with the destruction brought by Friday’s massive earthquake.
The 7.7-magnitude quake that struck central Myanmar has killed more than 1,600 people and destroyed thousands of homes.
But the bloody conflict sparked by the 2021 military coup has brought the country’s infrastructure, healthcare system and power network to their knees.
Here are some of the challenges facing relief efforts in Myanmar:
– Humanitarian crisis –
The United Nations and aid agencies have warned that millions were already facing a dire humanitarian crisis before the quake, and are now in urgent need of yet more aid.
Much of the country was already plagued by a punishing mix of conflict, poverty and instability after the civil war that left 3.5 million people displaced and smashed the economy.
“We have estimated that 19.9 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and this is just before the earthquake,” said UN humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar Marcoluigi Corsi.
“The situation will be further aggravated.”
Before the quake, the World Food Programme (WFP) said more than 15 million out of a population of 51 million were unable to meet their daily food needs.
Just two days after the quake, the UN said the aid effort was being hampered by a severe lack of medical supplies, while rescuers on the ground have pleaded for more equipment to comb ruined buildings for survivors.
The quake also struck Myanmar at a time when US President Donald Trump has slashed jobs and funding to Washington’s foreign aid agency.
Trump has promised US help but one million civilians in Myanmar face WFP aid cuts after he took an axe to the US Agency for International Development.
Countries around the world have begun sending rescue teams and aid shipments.
– Junta rule –
The junta, led by General Min Aung Hlaing, has lost control of large parts of Myanmar throughout the conflict, though it remains in charge of major cities including Mandalay — the closest to the quake epicentre and worst hit.
But many civil servants chose to switch sides following the military coup and join resistance to the junta.
This loss of personnel has further weakened an already antiquated civil administration, making the management and distribution of relief efforts harder.
In a sign of the enormity of the disaster — and perhaps in a tacit admission of the state’s inability to respond — Min Aung Hlaing issued a rare appeal for foreign aid on Friday.
This marked a major shift from previous military rulers who shunned all international assistance.
Poverty is rampant, the economy shattered, and international sanctions combined with the expense of fighting the civil war have drained the junta’s coffers.
– Splintered control –
Much of Myanmar is controlled by a shifting patchwork of junta forces, ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy partisans.
The complex mosaic of control on the ground, often involving competing groups with different agendas, may further frustrate efforts to move relief resources to where they are needed around the country.
Sagaing city — near the quake’s epicentre — has seen some of the heaviest fighting between junta forces and armed resistance groups.
Ethnic armed groups, border militias and the military have all been vying for control of local resources, spurring fears there will be a similar tussle for aid.
– Poor infrastructure –
Myanmar’s infrastructure and medical system have been ravaged by the civil war.
The junta has bombed hospitals in rebel-held areas and many doctors have abandoned government medical facilities to join the rebellion.
The UN has said hospitals in Mandalay, Magway and the capital Naypyidaw “are struggling to cope with the influx of people injured”.
The country was already beset by phone and internet blackouts but the quake has further hurt communications and the ability to direct aid to the most in need.
Internet communications in Mandalay were patchy and land and air routes severely disrupted after the quake buckled roads.
With many houses collapsed, the UN and other NGOs say solutions are needed for the many left homeless.
Prayers and tears for Eid in quake-hit Mandalay
By AFP
March 31, 2025
Muslims gather in Mandalay for a sombre first prayer of the Eid al-Fitr festival, three days after a devastating earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Hla-Hla HTAY, Sebastien BERGER
Hundreds of grieving Muslims gathered for Eid prayers in the street in Mandalay on Monday, the death and destruction of Myanmar’s huge earthquake casting a pall of anguish over the occasion.
The watching women were the first to weep. A tear, a sniffle, a cry. The emotion spread among hundreds of men lined up in the street outside two mosques where 20 of their fellow believers died.
Sobs and sighs haunted the air in the gentle morning light. Finally the imam’s voice broke as he prayed for the souls of the dead.
“May Allah grant us all peace,” he intoned. “May all the brothers be free from danger.”
The Muslims of Mandalay gathered for a sombre first prayer of the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, three days after a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck during Friday prayers.
The minaret of the Sajja South mosque in the Muslim neighbourhood of Mawyagiwah crashed to the ground in the quake, killing 14 children and two adults, locals said.
Four more people were killed at the neighbouring Sajja North mosque when its tower came down.
Many of the dead were from Win Thiri Aung’s family, close and extended.
“In normal times, it is full of joy when it is Eid,” the 26-year-old told AFP.
“Our hearts are light. This year, we are not like that. All of our minds are with the dead children. I see their faces in my eyes.
“We believe the souls of children and everyone we know who died have reached Paradise. We believe they were blessed deaths,” she said, breaking down.
“It is a test from Allah. It is a reminder from him that we need to turn towards him. So we need to pray more.”
– Terror at prayers –
Outside the alley leading to the mosques, the Eid worshippers, many wearing the new clothes that are the traditional gift for the festival, lined up on plastic sheeting laid on the road, held in place by bricks.
A plastic bucket served for ritual washing.
“We have to pray on the road, feeling sadness and loss,” said Aung Myint Hussein, chief administrator of the Sajja North mosque.
“The situation is so dire that it’s hard to express what is happening.
“We were terrified when we saw the destruction. It feels as if our entire lives have been shattered by this series of tremors and fears.”
The pattern of destruction in Myanmar’s second city is variable, with some buildings utterly devastated and a few areas of concentrated damage.
Down the street from the mosques, a resident said six people were killed when a dessert shop collapsed, as well as two people in a restaurant across the road.
But much of the city appeared unharmed, with traffic on the streets, some restaurants reopening and daytime life beginning to return to normal for many.
That is a distant prospect for those who have lost loved ones.
Sandar Aung’s 11-year-old son Htet Myet Aung was seriously injured at Friday prayers and died that evening in hospital.
“I am very sad, my son was very excited for Eid,” the 37-year-old said tearfully. “We got new clothes that we were going to wear together.
“We accept what Allah has planned,” she said. “Allah only does what’s good and what’s right and we have to accept that.”
Tears in Taiwan for relatives hit by Myanmar quake
By AFP
March 31, 2025
Yang Bi-ying could only weep for her family in Myanmar after a devastating earthquake killed more than 1,700 - Copyright AFP I-Hwa Cheng
Joy CHIANG
As images of destroyed buildings in earthquake-hit Myanmar flashed across her television screen in Taiwan, Yang Bi-ying could only weep for her family there.
Yang, 76, has lived in Taiwan for more than half her life and has a daughter-in-law in the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, which was devastated by Friday’s massive earthquake.
At least 1,700 people have been killed in Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand, and hopes of finding more survivors are fading fast.
Yang said her daughter-in-law was safe and other relatives in Yangon were unaffected by the 7.7-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks.
“I could only cry. There was nothing else, just tears,” the grandmother told AFP at an eatery in a Sino-Burmese neighbourhood near the capital Taipei.
“Every family has been worried, especially for those buried under the rubble. What could be done? Nothing. It’s all in the hands of fate.”
Three days after the quake struck, many in Taiwan’s Sino-Burmese community still feared for their loved ones.
“Several buildings near my family’s home collapsed, many people died,” said eatery owner Yeh Mei-chin, 48, showing AFP a video of the damage on her smartphone.
It took hours before Yeh was able to reach her mother and sisters in Mandalay on Friday. They were safe, but too scared to go home.
“I asked them where they would sleep that night and they said they were still looking for a place but hadn’t found one yet,” Yeh said.
People in Taiwan have been using social media platforms, including Line and WeChat, to contact family in Myanmar and monitor the situation.
But internet connection has been intermittent.
“On a lucky day, we may be able to get through a few times,” Lee Pei, 66, chairman of the Myanmar Overseas Chinese Association, told AFP.
“Usually, we can only leave messages as voice calls rarely go through. If we do manage to connect, the signal deteriorates after a few words.”
– Waiting for friends online –
The Myanmar community in Taiwan dates back to the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Many members of Chiang Kai-shek’s defeated Kuomintang nationalist forces fled across the border to Myanmar and later went to Taiwan.
Over the decades, students and people fleeing anti-Chinese sentiment as well as economic and political turmoil in Myanmar have followed.
Pei estimated Taiwan’s Sino-Burmese population at 160,000 and said 10 percent were originally from Mandalay.
University student Aung Kyaw Zaw has been following developments on Facebook where he has seen reports that in Sagaing city, near the quake’s epicentre, there was a “stench… like the smell of decaying bodies”.
The 24-year-old said he had exchanged messages with some friends in quake-hit areas, but “some of them still haven’t come online”.
There were also concerns that donations sent to Myanmar would not reach the people who need it.
“The junta only cares about fighting wars or other things, but they don’t really do much to help the people,” said university student Yi Chint, 24.
“I think very little of it would actually go to the people.”
Rescue hopes fading three days after deadly Myanmar quake
By AFP
March 30, 2025
Rescue teams work to reach people believed trapped under the rubble of the collapsed building Sky Villa Condominium in Mandalay - Copyright AFP Ludovic MARIN
Sebastien BERGER and Hla-Hla HTAY
Hopes were fading Monday of finding more survivors in the rubble of Mandalay, where some residents spent a third night sleeping in the open after a massive earthquake killed at least 1,700 people in Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.
Rescue efforts were less active in the central Myanmar city of more than 1.7 million people early Monday, but conditions are difficult — with temperatures expected to reach around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
The sticky heat has exhausted rescue workers and accelerated body decomposition, which could complicate identification.
A desperate scene unfolded at a collapsed apartment block in Myanmar’s second biggest city on Sunday evening, when rescuers thought they had saved the life of a pregnant woman trapped under the rubble for more than 55 hours.
They amputated her leg to free her, but after pulling her out she was pronounced dead.
“We tried everything to save her,” said one of the medical responders, but she had lost too much blood from the amputation.
Muslim worshipers, meanwhile, gathered near a destroyed mosque in the city on Monday morning for the first prayer of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that follows the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
Funerals for hundreds of victims are also expected to take place on Monday.
The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with some of the worst destruction seen in central Myanmar.
– Aftershocks cause panic –
Aftershocks continued to be felt in Mandalay over the weekend, spurring residents to flee into the streets in multiple instances of brief panic.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an emergency appeal Sunday for more than $100 million to help victims.
The world’s largest humanitarian network said needs were growing by the hour as rising temperatures and the approaching monsoon season increase the risk of “secondary crises”.
The challenges facing the Southeast Asian country of over 50 million people were immense even before the earthquake.
Myanmar has been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.
Reports have emerged of sporadic fighting even after the quake, with one rebel group telling AFP on Sunday that seven of its fighters were killed in an aerial attack soon after the tremors hit.
Before Friday’s quake, some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger.
– Bangkok building collapse –
In the Thai capital of Bangkok — about 1,000 kilometres away from Mandalay — rain fell on Monday morning at the site of a collapsed building that had been under construction at the time of Friday’s quake.
At least 18 people have been killed in Bangkok, city authorities said Sunday, with 33 injured and 78 still missing.
Most of the deaths were workers killed in the tower collapse, while most of the missing are believed to be trapped under the immense pile of debris where the skyscraper once stood.
Rescue workers raced over the weekend to find survivors, using large mechanical diggers to uncover rubble while distressed family members waited nearby.
Sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones have been deployed to seek signs of life in the collapsed building, which is close to the Chatuchak weekend market popular among tourists.
burs-pfc/fox/jfx
Aftershocks rattle Myanmar as rescuers search for survivors
By AFP
March 30, 2025
Rescue teams work to save residents trapped under the rubble of a condominium development in Mandalay on March 30, 2025 - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Hla-Hla Htay, with Montira Rungjirajittranon in Bangkok
Rescuers braved aftershocks to scour the devastated city of Mandalay for survivors on Monday, after a massive earthquake killed at least 1,700 people in Myanmar and at least 18 in neighbouring Thailand.
The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.
The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with mass destruction seen in the city of more than 1.7 million people.
Tea shop owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a collapsed restaurant in his neighbourhood on Sunday, tossing bricks aside one by one.
“About seven people died here” when the quake struck, he told AFP. “I’m looking for more bodies but I know there cannot be any survivors.”
A small aftershock struck in the morning, driving people scurrying out of a hotel for safety, following a similar tremor felt late Saturday evening.
And around 2:00 pm (0730 GMT), another aftershock — of 5.1-magnitude according to the US Geological Survey — sent alarmed people into the streets once again, temporarily halting rescue work.
Myanmar’s ruling junta said in a statement Sunday that about 1,700 people were confirmed dead so far, about 3,400 injured and around 300 more missing.
But with communications down in many areas, the true scale of the disaster remains unclear in the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.
At a destroyed Buddhist examination hall in Mandalay, Myanmar and Chinese responders worked to find buried victims on Sunday.
San Nwe Aye, sister of a 46-year-old monk missing in the collapsed hall, appeared in deep distress, and told AFP she has heard no news about his status.
“I want to hear the sound of him preaching,” she said.
At a collapsed apartment block in the city, rescuers thought they had saved the life of a pregnant woman trapped under rubble for more than 55 hours.
They even amputated her leg to free her, but after pulling her out they were unable to resuscitate her and she was pronounced dead.
– Myriad challenges –
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid on Friday.
Previous military governments have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.
Myanmar has already been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.
Reports have emerged of sporadic violence even after the quake, with one rebel group telling AFP on Sunday that seven of its fighters were killed in an aerial attack soon after the tremors hit.
Anti-junta fighters in the country have declared a two-week partial ceasefire in quake-affected regions starting Sunday, the shadow “National Unity Government” said in a statement.
The UN said overnight that a severe lack of medical equipment is hindering Myanmar’s response to the quake, while aid agencies have warned that the country is unprepared to deal with the disaster.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Sunday launched an emergency appeal for more than $100 million to help victims, while the World Health Organization said the quake was a top-level crisis and urgently launched its own appeal.
Some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger, even before the quake struck.
Rescue teams and aid have been arriving from donor countries around the world, with Thailand on Sunday dispatching 55 military personnel and six rescue dogs, along with equipment including cranes and diggers.
China sent 118 search and rescue personnel as well as canine units, demolition equipment and field hospital systems, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.
– Bangkok building collapse –
Across the border in Thailand, rescuers in Bangkok worked Sunday to pluck out survivors trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper that was under construction collapsed after the Friday earthquake.
At least 18 people have been killed in the Thai capital, city authorities said Sunday, with 33 injured and 78 still missing.
Most of the deaths were workers killed in the tower collapse, while most of the missing are believed to be trapped under the immense pile of debris where the skyscraper once stood.
The shock made 22-year-old survivor, Burmese worker Kyaw Lin Htet, feel like he “lost consciousness,” he told AFP at the site on Sunday.
Sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones have also been deployed to seek signs of life in the collapsed building, close to the Chatuchak weekend market popular among tourists.
burs-st/dc
Tears, prayers in search for monks trapped by Myanmar quake
By AFP
March 30, 2025
Rescue workers try to retrieve the body of a victim trapped in the rubble of a damaged monastery in Mandalay - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN
Sebastien BERGER
Covered in dust and resembling a Buddhist statue, the face of a dead monk emerges from the rubble of a religious examination hall in Mandalay flattened by Myanmar’s devastating earthquake.
A rescue worker gently brushes some of the grey powder off the face before covering it respectfully with a fan. Under another concrete slab, flies crawl over a shaven head matted with blood.
The rotting odour of death permeated the air above the remains of the U Hla Thein monastery on Sunday, 48 hours after the shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck, destroying buildings across the central Myanmar city.
More than 180 monks were taking the third session of a six-day exam for a senior level of monkhood when the tremors hit around 12:50 pm (0620 GMT) on Friday.
A picture shows them sitting on pink plastic chairs at individual desks in the cavernous hall, heads diligently bent over their papers as they worked.
An unknown number were able to escape as the three levels of one part of the building slammed down, one on top of another.
On Friday and Saturday a total of 21 people were rescued alive, and 13 bodies had been recovered by Sunday morning, a co-ordinator said.
It was impossible to say how many more lay crushed in the concrete, but it could be dozens.
Farmer Kyaw Swe’s son Seikta was taking the exam at the time and was among the missing.
He became a novice at the age of nine and has been in the monkhood for 31 years.
“I am hoping he is alive,” Kyaw Swe told AFP, a tear trickling down his cheek. “His mother is very sad.
“If it is your time to die, you can not avoid it. If you can abide by the Dhamma (Buddhist scripture), you will find some relief but if you can’t you will be tormented.”
– ‘It’s meant to be’ –
Novices, monks and relatives of the missing, many of them wearing surgical masks, peered through the hall as rescue workers used jackhammers to break up the pancaked mass of concrete.
Two people had been detected alive in the wreckage, one rescue officer said, and they were working to free them.
Cracks run through the still-standing but damaged structure of the rest of the building, and every sudden sound sent rescuers and onlookers sprinting away for fear of a collapse.
San Nwe Aye, 60, whose brother was administering the exam, said she hoped he would not be tormented by thoughts of his family while trapped.
“I want to hear the sound of him preaching,” she said. “He has such a great voice. I feel happy whenever I see him.”
Bhone Thuta, 31, who has been a monk for 18 years, said the devotees’ religious study taught them acceptance.
“This happens because it’s meant to be. You can’t blame anyone,” he told AFP.
“In Buddhism, we believe it’s because of our karma from our past lives. We are merely repaying our debts. Only Buddha knows what will happen and this is a debt we have to repay.”
