Swathes of central Myanmar have been reduced to rubble following a series of powerful earthquakes that struck on 28 March. For many communities near the epicentre, the disaster is piling further agony on a years-long – and worsening – humanitarian crisis.
The official death toll, including 22 fatalities in Thailand, has surpassed 2,900 and is expected to rise further. Almost 5,000 people have been injured and hundreds reported missing, some potentially still trapped under debris as hopes dim of finding survivors.
It has been reported that 500 bodies have been recovered from 50 mosques across central Myanmar, where worshippers were attending their final Friday prayers before the Eid holiday, at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The quakes, the largest of which were 7.7 and 6.4 in magnitude, caused damage as far away as neighbouring Thailand and parts of China, but Myanmar has borne the brunt of the disaster.
The country was already gripped by one of the world’s largest and most neglected humanitarian crises – marked by armed conflict, healthcare collapse, growing disease outbreaks, and violent crackdowns on media and political dissent.
The civil war has intensified since armed opposition groups united against the junta in October 2024, with displacement soaring above three million, and fresh reports of atrocities on all sides.
“Even before this earthquake, nearly 20 million people in Myanmar were in need of humanitarian assistance,” Marcoluigi Corsi, the UN’s resident and humanitarian coordinator for Myanmar, said in a statement. “This latest tragedy compounds an already dire crisis and risks further eroding the resilience of communities already battered by conflict, displacement, and past disasters.”
As ever, local responders and volunteers were first on the scene, helping each other and their own communities, but efforts have been frustrated by Myanmar’s severe structural issues, including restrictions on the internet, and fuel and electricity shortages.
Civilian sources speaking to The New Humanitarian from neighbouring Bangladesh say getting information on family and friends is even more difficult because “mobile communications rarely work in those areas”, and because downed power and telecommunication lines and towers have only increased that difficulty.
Most local media have been forced to operate outside Myanmar since the military seized power in February 2021, and the junta has granted few international media outlets access inside the country, so detailed ground reports from the affected areas are difficult to come by.
As rescue efforts continue and response efforts gear up, this briefing aims to provide context and background, and to explain what we know (and don’t know) about the disaster, bearing in mind the challenges of obtaining reliable information.
How is the civil war complicating aid access?
Myanmar’s political landscape presents major complications for aid groups and governments trying to coordinate their response efforts.
The country is divided between the ruling military junta, which seized power in a 2021 coup, and various armed groups battling the military for territorial control. The areas hit hardest by the earthquakes – the Mandalay and Sagaing regions – have been the sites of heavy fighting between junta and resistance forces.
Local journalists told The New Humanitarian that the central dry zone, where most of the damage occurred, is divided in a “messy” way – with rural areas of Sagaing controlled by resistance forces, but most of the urban areas run by the military.
One of the sources, who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity due to the security situation, described the situation in the affected areas as “a bit of a black box”.
In the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes, aid workers were concerned about their ability to reach the affected communities.
“We were quite worried that the most affected people were going to be in areas that were very difficult to get to because of the conflict,” one NGO worker told The New Humanitarian, again requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.
The UN has called for “unimpeded humanitarian access for humanitarian convoys, medical personnel, and assessment teams to all affected regions, regardless of location or control”.
The National Unity Government (NUG), led in part by politicians deposed in the 2021 coup and linked to some elements of the armed resistance movement, declared a two-week partial ceasefire on 30 March to facilitate rescue operations and support relief work. The ceasefire excludes defensive actions. The NUG also said it has sent $1 million to rescue and relief operations.
The junta, while welcoming international support, has faced criticism over allegations of blocking humanitarian aid. Despite declaring a state of emergency in parts of the country affected by the earthquakes, the military has conducted dozens of aerial and artillery attacks in the days since, reportedly killing scores of civilians in at least one area where relief work was ongoing.
The military’s leader, General Min Aung Hlaing, is facing potential prosecution by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity. While ostracised by much of the international community, he still enjoys some regional support.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social media to say he had spoken with the military leader the day after the earthquake.
In offering his support and condolences, Modi said: “As a close friend and neighbour, India stands in solidarity with the people of Myanmar in this difficult hour.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping sent a similar statement to General Min Aung Hlaing.
What has the international response been?
India and China are seen as leading the international assistance efforts.
Emergency response teams from China, India, Malaysia, and Russia have arrived in Myanmar. The US, the EU, India, and South Korea (among others) have pledged assistance, although former senior officials told the BBC that the Trump administration’s aid cuts would largely sideline US efforts.
The UN and partnering humanitarian agencies have allocated $15 million to “support the lifesaving response and [have] mobilised pre-positioned supplies”, according to OCHA, the UN’s emergency aid coordination body.
India sent two naval ships and an army field hospital with 118 medical personnel to provide assistance to the thousands of injured. Delhi also dispatched an 80-member National Disaster Response Force. The team, stationed in the capital Naypyidaw, is equipped with concrete cutters, drill machines, and canine squads to assist in the search for people trapped under the rubble.
Despite the challenges, the International Rescue Committee told The New Humanitarian on 1 April that its local partners in Myanmar have been able to access nearly all of the affected areas.
“We have local partner organisations in the area that were able to respond,” said Elinor Raikes, IRC’s vice president and head of programme delivery. “They were distributing immediate relief items within 14 hours of the earthquake.”
Raikes said because IRC already had a team in Mandalay, they were able to respond right away. They also deployed a mobile medical team to assist the Mandalay team.
“We’ve been able to access people. We should be able to do quite a bit” in the coming days and weeks so long as fighting doesn’t break out, she said, adding: “This is when we hope all parties to the conflict set aside any issues.”
For all her optimism, Raikes admitted that the biggest test for IRC was yet to come.
“We can’t say with confidence we’ve assessed everywhere. The challenge in the coming days will be in moving from the urban areas to the rural,” she said.
Other humanitarian groups have reported more difficulty accessing people in need of assistance due to major highways being damaged by the earthquakes.
“We had a team on the road earlier today, but they had to come back,” Federica Franco, the head of mission in Myanmar for Médecins Sans Frontières, said in a statement on 28 March.
The earthquake is the deadliest natural disaster to occur since President Donald Trump announced massive cuts to US foreign aid two months ago. Myanmar was already dealing with rising food costs, inflation, and currency devaluations, leaving nearly one in three people in the country in need of assistance. The UN’s 2025 assistance programme has received less than five percent of the funding needed to assist 5.5 million people.
Raikes said making up for Washington’s funding cuts would be a “tall order”, even if Myanmar’s regional neighbours have already done a good job with their response.
“We still hope the US government will step in and provide resources, but we haven’t heard anything yet,” said Raikes.
But it’s not just Trump’s aid cuts. “What we’re worried about generally is the overall decline in funding from the UK and [from] various EU programmes” to Myanmar and other crises around the world, Raikes added.
Before the earthquakes, OCHA reported that humanitarian actors were already facing challenges with “access, logistics, resources, and security”. Last year’s UN-coordinated humanitarian response plan for Myanmar was only 36% funded.
Are Myanmar’s hospitals able to treat the injured?
Even prior to the earthquake, Myanmar’s health system was facing a litany of security and supply challenges.
The junta has been routinely accused of targeting hospitals with its airstrikes. This has forced some health facilities to try and operate in more secluded, hard-to-reach areas.
Insecurity Insight said there have been 39 instances in 2024 of attacks on health facilities in Sagaing region alone. The majority of these were conducted by the military, but armed opposition groups have also been accused of bombing health facilities they claim are occupied by the military.
The Arakan Army, the largest armed opposition movement, has been accused of taking supplies and medicine from a government-run hospital and transferring them to a health centre in an area under its control. The military leadership has also been accused of hoarding and hiding basic medical supplies, including mosquito nets and vaccines vital to preventing the spread of communicable diseases.
All this has led the UN to warn that “the health system is in a state of collapse” in Myanmar.
At least one private and two public hospitals were “completely damaged” by the earthquakes, and 22 others sustained partial damage, according to a statement released by the World Health Organization on 30 March.
“The earthquake’s devastation has overwhelmed healthcare facilities in the affected areas, which are struggling to manage the influx of injured individuals,” the WHO statement said. “There is an urgent need for trauma and surgical care, blood transfusion supplies, anaesthetics, essential medicines, and mental health support.”
The Chindwin Medical and Humanitarian Network, a local relief organisation, said it had managed to set up mobile health clinics, food and water distribution, and emergency shelter in Sagaing region, but “critical security concerns” prevented the group from operating in Mandalay.
“Instead, we are working closely with trusted local partners and volunteers already active in the area, delivering emergency assistance through safe channels, providing remote supervision, telemedicine support, and psychosocial first aid, [and] supporting local responders with training, funding, and digital tools,” the group said.
What next?
The UN country team in Myanmar, along with humanitarian partners, local authorities, and community-based organisations, are in the process of conducting a rapid needs assessment, coordinated by OCHA.
In the past, the main international aid actors – particularly the UN – have come under fire for working with the permission of the junta, mainly delivering aid only within the territory it controls.
But even that is not a guarantee of safety. An armed group accused the military of shooting at a Chinese aid convoy in the eastern state of Shan on the night of 1 April.
The military has denied the accusations, saying the nine Chinese Red Cross vehicles failed to stop at a checkpoint and their soldiers fired aerial warning shots. This back-and-forth between the military and the forces of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army highlights the difficulties of operating in an active conflict zone like Myanmar, even when trying to deliver much-needed assistance.
As the international response mobilises, much of the rescue and relief work is being carried out by local organisations and communities. Multiple international crowdfunding initiatives have been launched to support their work.
A resident in the former capital, Yangon, told The New Humanitarian that they are worried for their compatriots hundreds of kilometres away in far-off Mandalay. The Yangon resident said concerned citizens are trying to find ways to volunteer for the search-and-rescue efforts and to offer supplies and support to those affected.
The worst-hit areas in the Mandalay and Sagaing regions, particularly the city of Sagaing, are not fully under the control of the military. But even in areas where the junta does have control, they have come under repeated accusations of diverting and confiscating aid in the past.
Despite the NUG’s unilateral ceasefire, analysts and activists question whether the other armed groups in the affected areas will join in the temporary halt, and, more importantly, whether they will be willing and able to coordinate speedy aid delivery.
Jacob Goldberg reported from Bangkok, Thailand. Ali M. Latifi reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Edited by Andrew Gully.
