Tragic earthquake hits war-torn Myanmar, with massive death toll and little aid

On March 28, a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the Mandalay-Sagaing region in southwestern Myanmar, causing multistory buildings to collapse and raising concerns about a significant death toll.

Tremors were also felt in neighboring countries, including Bangladesh, India, Laos, Thailand, and China.

Due to the ongoing civil war, information from Myanmar remains scarce, but social media has been flooded with videos showing buildings and half-constructed skyscrapers collapsing in the wake of the disaster, the AFP news agency reported.

Death toll rose significantly in Myanmar from 150 on March 28 in the afternoon to over 1,000 people on March 29. The death toll is expected to increase by thousands more. In neighboring Thailand, Bangkok city authorities said so far six people had been found dead, 26 injured and 47 were still missing, according to The Guardian.

Pope Francis was praying for victims of the earthquake on March 28. In a telegram sent to civil and church authorities in the two countries most affected — Myanmar and Thailand — Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said the pope was “deeply saddened by the loss of life and widespread devastation.”

“Pope Francis offers heartfelt prayers for the souls of the deceased and the assurance of his spiritual closeness to all affected by this tragedy,” the message said. The pope also prayed that emergency workers would be given “the divine gifts of fortitude and perseverance.”

A shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake was followed shortly by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock, causing widespread destruction in Myanmar. Buildings were toppled, roads were torn apart and the iconic Ava bridge collapsed. The colonial-era bridge was built 91 years ago by the British Empire over the Irrawaddy River.

More than 40 people were still missing March 29 after a skyscraper collapsed in Thailand’s Bangkok, Reuters reported. Rescuers were rushing against time as 15 people were believed to be still alive under the rubble as of morning hours of March 29, according to the BBC. The powerful quake transformed a major hospital in Myanmar’s capital into a “mass casualty area,” according to AFP and UCA News reports.

“I felt it bad. I was standing, and then I was hit directly; even now, I’m still dizzy. The building shook badly. The fridge and the freezer were bouncing around the house. It was only one minute, but it just seemed to last forever,” Myanmar’s NGO source located close to Myawaddy town told UCA News.

“I’m getting a lot of news out of Myanmar, and Mandalay has been badly damaged. Buildings collapsed, so we’re very worried that a lot of people may have been killed or injured,” she said.

Mandalay has a population of 1.2 million people.

“One monastery has imploded, and skyscrapers have been slammed down to the ground from the highest of levels. There must be people buried alive in there. It’s horrible.” she said.

Myanmar’s military government declared a state of emergency and appealed for blood donations and foreign aid to arrive.

“As much support as possible for the ongoing rescue efforts” are needed, junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said late on March 28.

“The number of casualties is expected to rise further,” he said.

Aid is already on the way from several countries including China, India and South Korea.

President Donald Trump, commenting on the news of the earthquake said the U.S. would help Myanmar by sending aid.

“It’s terrible,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office March 28. He said, “It’s a real bad one, and we will be helping. We’ve already spoken with the country.”

Caritas Poland, part of Caritas Internationalis, the Catholic Church’s charitable arm, asked for urgent donations and said that in cooperation with the international headquarters it is preparing aid for the devastated region.

The conflict made the already suffering Myanmar communities go through another devastating pain. In 2021, the military ousted a civilian government in a coup that triggered the civil war.

“The tragedy is that relief efforts are scarce or completely absent,” a source in the Catholic community of Mandalay, near Sagaing, where the earthquake did the most damage in Myanmar, told Fides news agency, part of the Vatican’s Dicastery of Evangelization.

“We see so much solidarity among the people, but we register the complete absence of the state. The area of Sagaing, epicenter of the earthquake, is one of those where clashes are strongest due to the ongoing civil war. In the general instability there is no organized relief for the victims,” the church source said.

“In areas that are not under army control, the so-called ‘liberated areas,’ there are no functioning civil institutions, so everything is left to the goodwill of the people or the organization of communities and ethnic minority armies,” said the Fides church source that requested anonymity due to security reasons.

“In junta-controlled areas, a few firefighting corps are busy in the capital Naypyidaw and in Mandalay, where several multi-story buildings have collapsed, but so many other areas are completely left to their own devices. The state is completely disinterested in the citizens, their condition and well-being,” said the Fides source.

Meanwhile, the ruling military junta has decreed a state of emergency in six regions and issued a call for humanitarian aid to the international community.

According to Fides, several Catholic churches in Mandalay suffered damage, with St. Michael’s Church being the hardest hit. Another 20 people died in the collapse of a mosque in Mandalay.

Also damaged was St. Joseph’s Cathedral in the city of Taunggyi, Shan State. Many churches, in Mandalay, Naypyidaw, Yangon and Taunggyi, disrupted liturgical celebrations and mobilized the faithful by activating gestures of solidarity for those who found themselves homeless, the agency said.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s estimates based on predictive models, Myanmar’s death toll could exceed 10,000 and economic losses could exceed its annual economic output.

CNS Rome contributed to this OSV News report.

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