AT around 1pm on Friday March 28, the biggest earthquake for a generation, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale, sent shockwaves throughout south-east Asia.

Initially, the world’s media focused on Bangkok, where an unfinished tower block collapsed killing dozens, but as news from Myanmar slowly came in, it became clear that the damage there was catastrophic, particularly in the heartland regions of Mandalay and Sagaing as well as the administrative capital Naypyidaw.

Over the last week, the horror stories have rolled in: 200 monks were killed at U Hla Thein Monastery in Mandalay in the middle of their religious exams and around the country many Muslim worshippers were killed during Friday prayers as their mosques were collapsing in on them. In the town of Kyaukse, a preschool building fell and killed at least 20 children.

Markets, shops, houses and hospitals have collapsed, trapping both the living and the dead. The crematoriums in Mandalay are already full to capacity and there is a literal stench of death throughout the cities as corpses lie rotting.

The true death toll will not be known for weeks and perhaps even months, as despite the unrelenting carnage, there is simply not enough support to rescue the living and remove the dead bodies from the rubble. Even many of those rescued have died due to a lack of medical facilities.

It is clear to many that this is not simply a natural disaster, but a political tragedy. The power of the earthquake would be devastating for any country, but in Myanmar, one of the world’s poorest countries, which has played host to multiple ongoing civil wars, the event has highlighted the poor state of infrastructure and a military government seemingly intent on putting itself before the lives of citizens.

Htuu Lou Rae, co-founder of Doa-A-Yae, a coalition of Burmese democracy activists and human rights groups, told me that “the junta has a rent-seeking approach to aid which has prioritised Naypyidaw, the centre of junta power, and marginalised communities considered as symbolic threats such as Muslim communities, as well as civilian populations in rebel-controlled areas and political prisoners.”

Since becoming independent from the British empire in 1948, Myanmar has been the field for multiple civil wars with revolutionary groups representing marginalised ethnic groups in the country’s borderlands. 

Following the military coup of 2021, civil war reached a new level, with the formation of the national unity government (NUG), a parallel government and aligned armed groups that included representatives from the country’s Bamar majority ethnic group that has won major support and tentative coalition building with some of the country’s ethnic minority.

Following the earthquake, the NUG called for a ceasefire but the Military government, known as the state advisory council, continued to order multiple air strikes against resistance forces, including in the Sagaing region not far from the epicentre of the earthquake, drawing ire from the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, who called the attacks “completely outrageous and unacceptable.”

In the earthquake’s path, there is a lack of human capacity to deal with survivors due to the military’s targeting of doctors and nurses. The NUG government claims that the military has destroyed over 300 hospitals across the country since taking power in 2021. Adding to this, even in areas it nominally controls such as Mandalay, the regime has shut down at least seven private hospitals it has suspected of employing doctors who resigned from the government in protest at the coup.

There is also a worry that the military will use aid as a political tool to try and relegitimise its regime. The question of aid is one that means the international community must show where it stands.

During the 2010s Myanmar experienced what was heralded at the time as a transition to democracy by the West, yet the reality was that the military was still attacking communities in its borderlands, starting a hot war with the Kachin Independence Army, creating thousands of displaced persons while blocking international aid agencies from providing assistance.

The West and other international actors have certainly provided assistance off the books in the past, but red tape on all sides means that they tend to try and operate through the state first, even when the military is in charge.

Yet even flawed support is no longer as powerful as it once was from some countries. While they have promised $2 million in aid, just a month ago, the Trump administration took a chainsaw to USAid funding, dismantling the very networks that would have been poised to effectively co-ordinate relief.

Britain has pledged £10m which it will hopefully distribute through effective and more nimble local partners. Yet while Keir Starmer’s cuts to the foreign aid budget have not been made with the same urgency as Donald Trump’s, it is well worth stating that if such cuts go through they will lose this ability to react with something approaching precision.

China, Russia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore have all sent rescue personnel to Myanmar, but in what appeared to be a startling display of politics over humanity a rescue team from Taiwan was denied entry (although some reports say that Taiwan stood its team down) presumably so as not to legitimise its rival Chinese government.

China itself is providing a hefty chunk of aid and on-ground support. Yet there are claims that rescue and humanitarian aid is not being distributed evenly, with both international and local teams being prevented from accessing Sagaing in particular by the military which has set up restrictive checkpoints along the route to the northern city.

I spoke with student union members in Sagaing who relayed their stories to me. They have been made homeless themselves, but are determined to save as many lives as possible, providing logistical support by going street to street distributing medical aid, blankets, food, and tents, to survivors as well as working on dead body management as the town’s crematoriums reach capacity.

A union leader told me “Myanmar is going through a lot of pain — both from disasters and the junta’s cruelty. We need your help to stand with the people of Myanmar.”

In a familiar refrain for Myanmar, the people are being left to support themselves by a state equal parts cruel and feckless. The political fallout from this disaster is difficult to predict, yet while the major players manoeuvre, it is the resilience and bravery of those working tirelessly on the ground that must be the focus of our attention right now.

If you would like to support grassroots community groups and student unions in Myanmar, please consider donating to www.edge.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/studentearthquakesupport.