THE toll from Myanmar’s earthquake continued to rise on March 30, as foreign rescue teams rushed to help the impoverished country, where hospitals were overwhelmed and some communities scrambled to mount rescue efforts with limited resources.
The 7.7-magnitude quake on March 28, one of Myanmar's strongest in a century, jolted the South-east Asian nation, leaving about 1,700 people dead, 3,400 injured and over 300 more missing, the military government said.
Reuters reported Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing warning that the number of fatalities could go up, and his administration faced a challenging situation, state media reported, three days after he made a rare call for international assistance.
India, China and Thailand are among Myanmar’s neighbours that have sent relief aid and teams, along with Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Russia.
But residents in the cities of Mandalay and Sagaing reported that international aid had not arrived as concerns grew about a severe shortage of food, electricity and water.
“The destruction has been extensive, and humanitarian needs are growing by the hour,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.
The United States pledged US$2 million in aid “through Myanmar-based humanitarian assistance organisations” and said in a statement that an emergency response team from USAid, which is undergoing massive cuts under the Trump administration, is deploying to Myanmar.
The devastation has piled more misery on Myanmar, already in chaos from a civil war that grew out of a nationwide uprising after a 2021 military coup ousted the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Critical infrastructure - including bridges, highways, airports and railways - across the country of 55 million lie damaged, slowing humanitarian efforts while the conflict that has battered the economy, displaced over 3.5 million people and debilitated the health system rages on.
The military council has rejected requests from international journalists to cover the devastation, citing the lack of water, electricity and hotels.
The US Geological Survey’s predictive modelling estimated Myanmar’s death toll could eventually top 10,000 and losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output.
No aid, no rescue workers
Hospitals in parts of central and northwestern Myanmar, including the second-biggest city, Mandalay, and the capital Naypyitaw, were struggling to cope with an influx of injured people, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said late on March 29.
Ashin Pawara, a monk living in Mandalay, said concrete buildings had become unsafe, forcing people to sleep on the streets and open ground. Hospital buildings collapsed in the earthquake, leaving patients lying on the ground without proper beds.
“I haven’t seen anyone receiving international aid, but local self-help groups are donating food, water and snacks,” he said.
The Chinese embassy in Myanmar said a Chinese rescue team freed a woman who had been trapped for about 60 hours inside the Great Wall Hotel in Mandalay.
Indian military aircraft made multiple sorties into Myanmar on March 29, including ferrying supplies and search-and-rescue crews to Naypyitaw, the purpose-made capital, parts of which have been wrecked by the earthquake.
The Indian army will help set up a field hospital in Mandalay, and two navy ships carrying supplies are heading to Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon, said Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
An 80-member team from Singapore, accompanied by rescue dogs, was operating in Naypyitaw on March 30, Myanmar state media said.
Indonesia said on March 30 it will send a search-and-rescue team, medical team and logistical aid to Myanmar starting on March 31.
The Indonesian military will send a hospital ship, three Hercules aircraft and four helicopters to assist emergency response, local media reported military spokesman Kristomei Sianturi as saying.
The quake also shook parts of neighbouring Thailand, bringing down an under-construction skyscraper and killing 18 people across the capital, according to Thai authorities.
At least 76 people remained trapped under the debris of the collapsed Bangkok building, where rescue operations continued for a third day, using drones and sniffer dogs to hunt for survivors.
Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government, which includes remnants of the previous administration, said anti-junta militias under its command would pause all offensive military actions for two weeks from March 30.
The devastation in some areas of upper Myanmar, such as the town of Sagaing near the quake’s epicentre, was extensive, said resident Han Zin.
“What we are seeing here is widespread destruction - many buildings have collapsed into the ground,” he said by phone, adding that much of the town had been without electricity since the disaster hit, and drinking water was running out.
“We have received no aid, and there are no rescue workers in sight.”
Sections of a major bridge connecting Sagaing to nearby Mandalay collapsed, satellite imagery showed, with spans of the colonial-era structure submerged in the Irrawaddy River.
“With bridges destroyed, even aid from Mandalay is struggling to get through,” Sagaing Federal Unit Hluttaw, a political association linked to the NUG, said on Facebook, adding that food and medicine were unavailable. – March 31, 2025
