Monday Briefing: Devastation in Myanmar

Rescuers at an apartment building in Mandalay, Myanmar.Credit…Sai Aung Main/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Aftershocks and airstrikes struck Myanmar

More than 1,600 people were confirmed dead across Myanmar over the weekend, and more than 3,000 were injured in the worst earthquake to hit the country in over a century. Here is a map of the damage, and images from the region.

An aftershock yesterday struck Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, near the epicenter of the initial quake, toppling several buildings that had previously survived. Many fear for the missing, whose chances drop sharply after this evening, when a crucial 72-hour survival window closes.

Amid the natural destruction, the governing military junta over the weekend continued a brutal bombing campaign. A long-running civil war has ravaged the country, leaving nearly 20 million people in need of shelter and food even before the quake, according to the U.N.

Power: Experts say the earthquake could change the trajectory of the civil war. The Arakan Army, a powerful rebel group, has won control of large parts of Rakhine State. It could exploit this moment to take the south of the country from the military.

Aid: Support from other countries is arriving, but doubts remained about how the Myanmar Army would distribute the much-needed relief.

“They have a long track record of using aid as a weapon,” said Scot Marciel, the U.S. ambassador to Myanmar from 2016 to 2020.