Rain complicates recovery in quake-hit Myanmar, death toll rises

YANGON, Myanmar: Rain is compounding misery and presenting new hurdles for relief efforts on Sunday in Myanmar, where state media reported the death toll from a devastating earthquake has risen to nearly 3,500 people.

The 7.7-magnitude quake struck on March 28, razing buildings, cutting off power and destroying bridges and roads across the country.

Damage has been particularly severe in the city of Sagaing near the epicentre, as well as in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second city and home to more than 1.7 million people.

State media in the military junta-led country now say that the earthquake has caused 3,471 confirmed deaths and injured 4,671 people, while 214 remain missing.

With people either having lost their homes entirely or reluctant to spend time in cracked and unstable structures, many Mandalay residents have been sleeping outside in tents.

When wind and rain began battering the rudimentary shelters on Saturday evening, victims were forced to choose between passing the night in dry but risky buildings or outdoors in the elements.

“People are trying to rebuild their lives now,” said United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher in a video filmed in Mandalay, posted to X on Sunday.

“They need food. They need water. They need the power back on,” he said.

Many people in the area are still without shelter, he said, describing the scale of damage in the area as “epic”.

“We need to get tents and hope to survivors as they rebuild their shattered lives,” Fletcher wrote in another post.

Aid experts warn that rainy conditions and scorching heat increase the risk of disease outbreaks at outdoor camps where victims were in temporary shelter.

Myanmar has been ruled by junta leader Min Aung Hlaing since 2021, when his military seized power in a coup that overthrew the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

International efforts to provide quake relief in the Southeast Asian country of more than 50 million people have been complicated by unreliable communication networks and infrastructure heavily damaged by four years of civil war.

Even before the recent quake, the humanitarian crisis in the country was severe, with the persistent, multi-sided conflict displacing 3.5 million people, according to the UN.

The UN said Friday that since the earthquake, the junta continued to conduct dozens of attacks against rebel groups, including at least 16 since Wednesday when the military government announced a temporary ceasefire.

Fletcher held discussions with the foreign ministers of Thailand and Malaysia on Saturday for what he called a “practical meeting” centred on “strong, coordinated, collective action” to save lives in Myanmar.

Aftershocks have also continued as long as a week after the initial tremors, with a 4.7-magnitude quake striking just south of Mandalay late Friday evening, according to the United States Geological Survey.