Myanmar quake rescue efforts wind down as death toll exceeds 3,500
Relief and recovery activity is now the focus.
Efforts to find survivors from Myanmar’s devastating March 28 earthquake are winding down.
Rescue efforts have been supplanted by increasing relief and recovery activity, with the death toll from the disaster surpassing 3,500 and still climbing.
In the capital, Naypyitaw, people cleared debris and collected wood from their damaged houses under drizzling rain, and soldiers removed wreckage at some Buddhist monasteries.
Myanmar Fire Services Department said on Monday that teams had recovered 10 bodies from the rubble of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city.
It said international rescuers from Singapore, Malaysia and India had returned to their countries after their work to find survivors was considered completed.
The number of rescue teams operating in the residential areas of Naypyitaw has been steadily decreasing.
The 7.7-magnitude quake hit a wide swathe of the country, causing significant damage to six regions and states. The earthquake left many areas without power, telephone or mobile connections and damaged roads and bridges, making the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.
Heavy rains and winds disrupted rescue and relief operations on Saturday night and added to the misery of the homeless forced to sleep in the open. The weather forecast for this week said scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible across the country.
Myanmar’s military government and its battlefield opponents, meanwhile, have been trading accusations over alleged violations of ceasefire declarations made in a bid to ease earthquake relief efforts.
The country has been in turmoil since the army’s 2021 takeover ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, which led to nationwide peaceful protests that escalated into armed resistance and what now amounts to civil war.
Although the military government and its armed opponents declared unilateral ceasefires for a temporary period, reports of continued fighting are widespread, with the army coming in for special attention for continuing aerial bombing, according to independent Myanmar media and eyewitnesses.
Independent confirmation of fighting is difficult because of the remoteness of the areas in which much of it takes place and restrictions on journalists.
