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 with more than 1.7 million residents.
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 residents have been sleeping outside in tents.
Around 45 minutes of heavy rain and winds lashed tent cities on 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 programme specialist at the UN agency, told AFP.
There are also fears 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.
“The weather is very extreme,” Tun Tun told AFP, with further rain forecast.
Aid experts warn that rainy conditions and scorching heat increase the risk of disease outbreaks at outdoor camps where victims were in temporary shelter.
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said that food, water, and power repairs were needed urgently, in a video filmed in Mandalay and posted to X on Sunday.
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
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 on 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 on Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey.
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 protest, with demonstrators at the venue displaying a banner calling him a “murderer” and anti-junta groups condemning his inclusion.
Pakistan hands over 2nd relief consignment
Pakistan handed over the second consignment of emergency relief aid to Myanmar for its people affected by the earthquake, state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Sunday.
The second batch — comprising 35 tonnes of goods and bringing the total aid to 70 tonnes — was handed over by Pakistan’s Ambassador to Myanmar Imran Haider to Yangon’s chief minister at the Yangon International Airport, the report said.
It noted that on the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the National Disaster Management Authority efficiently coordinated and expedited the dispatch of these consignments within a short timeframe.
Earlier this week, Pakistan sent the first batch of 35 tonnes of relief supplies to Myanmar as aid groups in the worst-hit areas said there was an urgent need for shelter, food and water.
The first shipment — weighing 35 tonnes — included approximately 565 tents, 210 tarpaulins, 2,000 blankets, a tonne of ready-to-eat food, 0.5 tonnes of medicines and 10 water purification modules.
Days later, PM Shehbaz also visited the Myanmar embassy in Islamabad, where he met the Southeast Asian country’s Ambassador Wunna Han and conveyed his deep condolences on behalf of the government and people of Pakistan.