BANGKOK (AP) — The death toll from last week’s powerful earthquake in Myanmar has surpassed 2,000, state media reported on Monday, and accounts of some people’s final moments are beginning to emerge.
Among those stories are the 200 Buddhist monks crushed by the collapse of a monastery, 50 children killed when a preschool classroom collapsed, and the 700 Muslims crushed while praying in mosques during Ramadan.
The earthquake could exacerbate hunger and disease outbreaks in a country that was already one of the most challenging places in the world for aid organizations to operate due to the civil war, warned aid groups and the United Nations.
The magnitude 7.7 earthquake on Friday had its epicenter near the country’s second largest city, Mandalay, damaged the city’s airport, brought down roads, and collapsed hundreds of buildings along a wide swath in the country’s center.
How have the rescue operations in Myanmar been carried out?
Rescue efforts have been further hindered by power outages, fuel shortages, and irregular communications. The lack of heavy machinery has slowed down search and rescue operations, forcing many to search for survivors manually under relentless heat, with daily temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
Rescuers at the collapsed U Hla Thein monastery in Mandalay said they are still searching for around 150 dead monks.
Around 700 Muslims attending Friday prayers died when the mosques collapsed, said Tun Kyi, a member of the steering committee of the Muslim Network of the Myanmar Spring Revolution. He added that approximately 60 mosques were damaged or destroyed.
The state television MRTV of Myanmar reported that the leader of the military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, told the Prime Minister of Pakistan during a call that 2,065 people had died, with over 3,900 injured and around 270 missing.
Aid agencies expect those numbers to increase drastically, as access is slow to remote areas where communications are down.
The United Nations representation in Myanmar called for unrestricted access for aid teams.
“Before this earthquake, almost 20 million people in Myanmar needed humanitarian assistance,” emphasized Marcoluigi Corsi, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Myanmar.
The magnitude of the devastation is unknown.
“Actually, at this moment we do not have a clear idea of the magnitude of the destruction,” said Lauren Ellery, program deputy director in Myanmar for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), to The Associated Press. “They talk about a city near Mandalay where it was reported that 80% of the buildings had collapsed, but it was not in the news because the telecommunications have been slow.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that it has reports of three hospitals destroyed and 22 partially damaged in the region.
More than 10,000 buildings have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Myanmar, according to the UN humanitarian agency. A preschool classroom building collapsed in the Mandalay district, killing 50 children and two teachers, it added.
An analysis with artificial intelligence on satellite images of Mandalay conducted by Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab counted 515 buildings with damages between 80% and 100% and another 1,524 with damages between 20% and 80%.
The civil war had displaced millions of people.
Beyond the earthquake damage, rescue efforts are being complicated by the bloody civil war that is shaking much of the country. In 2021, the Army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering significant armed resistance.
While one group in the civil war declared a partial unilateral ceasefire, the government and other armed groups have not stopped fighting.
Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places are dangerous or inaccessible for aid groups. More than 3 million people have been displaced by the fighting, according to the United Nations.