YANGON—Rain compounded misery and presented 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 with more than 1.7 million residents.
State media 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 residents have been sleeping outside in tents.
Around 45 minutes of heavy rain and winds lashed tent cities Saturday evening in Mandalay, according to the UN Development Programme.
People and their belongings were soaked because of a shortage of tarpaulins, Tun Tun, a program specialist at the UN agency, told AFP.
There are also fears that destroyed buildings will subside and complicate body recovery efforts.
Following less intense showers Sunday morning, the temperature is due to climb to 37 degrees Celsius, with further rain forecast.
“The weather is very extreme,” Tun Tun told AFP.
Aid experts warn that rainy conditions and scorching heat increase the risk of disease outbreaks at outdoor camps where victims were in temporary shelter.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher, in a video filmed in Mandalay and posted to X on Sunday, said that food, water, and power repairs were needed urgently.
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.
Ongoing attacks, aftershocks
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 in what he called a “practical meeting” centered 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, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was in Bangkok on Thursday and Friday on a rare foreign trip to attend a regional summit that saw him meet with leaders including the prime ministers of Thailand and India.
The general’s attendance at the summit prompted protests, with demonstrators at the venue displaying a banner calling him a “murderer” and anti-junta groups condemning his inclusion.
