On Friday 28 March, I woke up to the news that a large part of my country had been reduced to rubble after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake. A quick scroll on Facebook — the social media platform synonymous to the Internet for most Burmese people — showed me the extent of the catastrophe. Soon, I was desperately calling home. Videocalls were patchy but I was told Yangon, where most of my family and friends reside, was safe. The epicentre was less than 30 miles from where my father lives but, as luck would have it, he was traveling and in a different town when disaster struck. Knowing all my loved ones were safe, however, was of little comfort as more news on the extent of the damage emerged.
Since the earthquake, when friends from all over the world checked in on me, inquiring about the safety of my family, I was repeatedly asked why there is such limited reporting on the situation in Myanmar. Even at the best of times, Myanmar (as Burma was renamed in 1989) is widely seen as country of little importance to the world. Very few nations other than China have vested economic interests in it. Its military government, the State Administration Council (SAC) led by General Min Aung Hlaing, has been suppressing local media since it seized power in the 2021 coup. Over 200 journalists have been detained, and many have since fled the country leaving independent news outlets with no choice but to relocate to neighbouring Thailand, severely limiting on-the-ground reporting. Myanmar news outlets now had to rely on “citizen journalists” who would capture images of their communities and inform news outlets.
Areas under active armed conflict are most likely under mobile and internet blackout while the rest of the country needs VPNs to be online and in recent months the military junta has been actively working to block VPNs as well, meaning people must use a new VPN every other week. Now, the earthquake and its indiscriminate destruction has wiped out much of the mobile and internet infrastructure in central Myanmar. Even hours after the world heard about the massive earthquake in Myanmar very little information about the on-the-ground situation was available. News of the fate of Mandalay, the second largest city with a population of about 1.5 million, and Sagaing, across the Irrawaddy River, right at the epicentre, was only posted on Facebook, mostly in the Burmese language in personal social media accounts, and obscured from the world.
When it comes to disaster relief in Myanmar, the most effective mechanism is community-based self-reliance. Successive dictators of Burma/Myanmar may have endorsed self-sufficiency since the 1960s, but decades of dysfunctional institutions have instilled self-reliance within the Burmese people — with communities funding the construction of basic infrastructure such as roads and schools to disaster relief and the current, ongoing revolution against military rule. The 2008 Cyclone Nargis serves as the perfect example here. The international community pledged millions of dollars’ worth of aid and assistance to help the 24 million population in the Irrawaddy Delta that suffered the cyclone’s full wrath. The military regime at the time, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) led by Than Shwe, had other ideas and actively blocked aid from coming into the country, on the excuse of security concerns. So, communities pooled resources, funds, and supplies to provide disaster relief while the regime set up photo-ops and monopolised what little international aid that came through. As natural disaster after natural disaster has struck Myanmar, be it cyclones, floods or earthquakes, or other crises such as the pandemic or civil war, providing relief and aid has always been a community effort. As such, Burmese people know that this earthquake and the subsequent recovery and rebuilding efforts would, yet again, come from communities.
The difference this time is that millions of Burmese people, including myself, have migrated to neighbouring countries and beyond to cope with the conditions created by the 2021 military coup. These include unemployment, inflation, the risk of imprisonment (the causes range from association with resistance forces to sarcastic Facebook posts) and accompanying torture, the army’s forced conscription (to be used as body shields at frontline with little training or material support), kidnappings for army recruitment and extortion for the most frivolous reasons.
So, by the time dust from collapsing buildings settled, guilt struck the Burmese diaspora. This runs deeper than survivor’s guilt. It comes from knowing that community-based earthquake relief efforts would be severely limited simply by the communities, due to this coup, haemorrhaging young people who could volunteer and get to the ground to help with search and rescue as well as take care of the survivors. Moreover, public healthcare declined when the majority of doctors left civil service, protesting the coup through the civil obedience movement (CDM). The junta has been actively arresting these CDM doctors and forcing private clinics and hospitals to close out of suspicion of employing them. All of this means more precious lives will be lost not just because of the earthquake itself but from the conditions created by the military junta since the 2021 coup.
Nonetheless, given the reality, it was even more important for the people to get to work. As we Burmese people often say, we only have each other to save us. Almost immediately, Burmese communities in the country and all over the world began fundraising for earthquake relief. The coup-induced economic decline — with multiple banking crises, inflation and generally creating a bad business environment — meant the people in the country had less disposable income but that has been somewhat mitigated with fundraising by Burmese communities abroad. Import restrictions, due to foreign reserve shortage (because the junta needed foreign reserve for arms) has meant there has been a shortage of supplies in the country, including gas. Civilian volunteers and charity organisations have been undertaking search and rescue efforts since 28 March but these volunteers have no training, no safety equipment (not even helmets, masks and gloves for everyone, let alone sensors and heavy-duty drills) and no machinery that would make the efforts efficient. Search and rescue in this context means volunteers digging out rubble by hand or a few simple tools such as shovels and hammers. Some construction equipment, when available, was usable but without professional expertise risked harming survivors under the rubble. So even if cries for help could be heard, getting these survivors out was a different story.
Meanwhile, the military junta actively contributes to the suffering of the people
Recovering bodies has proved to be a challenge. Continuous aftershocks meant damaged buildings still had the risk of collapsing, preventing survivors from staying in them. Since the earthquake, most residents of Mandalay and Sagaing have lost their homes and have no choice but to sleep and live on the streets and in open fields with no or little shelter. Bear in mind that this is the last few weeks of summer in Myanmar, with daytime temperatures nearing 40 degree Celsius. The bodies of thousands of people who lost their lives are still under the rubble, so the survivors are living with the stench of death. Rescue teams sent by India, China, Thailand and more were all under the control of the junta, meaning they were not allowed to get to the worst affected areas in time. Taiwan offered to send a rescue team and was denied entry to the country. It probably wasn’t the only rejection. The international rescue teams would be accompanied by soldiers, also limiting their efforts.
Meanwhile, the military junta actively contributes to the suffering of the people. The National Unity Government, the parallel and interim government in exile, and various ethnic armed groups fighting for resistance, announced a temporary ceasefire so that relief work could be conducted in peace. The junta claimed to have established a ceasefire as well, but unsurprisingly continues to carry out airstrikes, often in areas affected by the earthquake.
General Min Aung Hlaing issued a rare request for international aid but it is obvious that his junta and the army will likely remain the beneficiaries. Countries such as the UK and Australia were at least considerate in offering aid, only providing it through international aid organisations and not handing it out to the junta. However, any international aid organisation working on the ground is still at the mercy of state officials, so how much international aid will get through to the ground is anyone’s guess. Naypyitaw, the junta’s capital, was also hard hit but has been under an information blackout and the civil servants are mostly left to fend for themselves as the junta has been more concerned for their own families and the army bases. Soldiers and police continue to hinder community relief efforts by creating roadblocks and extorting payments for aid to get through. Transferring aid through local banks proves to be risky as online bank transfers are still limited and bank accounts that received transfers titled “donation” or “charity” are at risk of getting blocked and funds confiscated.
In complete disregard of the misery, Min Aung Hlaing actually appears to be relishing the rare swing of the spotlight upon him. The day after the earthquake, he made a show of being on call with India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, trying to establish legitimacy for the regime. Less than a week later, he headed off to Bangkok, Thailand to attend the BIMSTEC Summit 2025 in person, getting to rub shoulders with other heads of state of member countries. The argument that he is invited not as a Head of State but a Commander-in-chief bears no significance, but has allowed him and the SAC regime to make diplomatic strides they have not yet made in four years since the coup.
Burmese people will prevail as we always have
Meanwhile, residents of the worst affected areas are traumatised and still in shock at the devastation and loss. Recovery is hard to imagine as aftershocks still shake the ground every day. The estimated death toll has passed 5,000 and will continue to rise. A new challenge further complicates recovery and resettlement as the first rain of the year falls, monsoon less than a month away. Even parts of the country that did not suffer the full scale of the earthquake, such as Yangon, are frightened after seeing the destruction, with people running into the streets at all hours of the day and night in fear of a strong aftershock.
International friends checking in with their Burmese friends often praise the resilience of the Burmese people and to us, it is no longer a compliment. It is a hard truth reminding us of all the suffering that we have had to endure, with little support and even interest, because Myanmar has always been irrelevant to most of the world. The current challenge may seem insurmountable with no sight of recovery — yet Burmese people will prevail as we always have, simply because we do not have a choice.
