An armed resistance group in Myanmar has accused the ruling military government of continuing to carry out airstrikes on “civilian areas” in the wake of the huge earthquake in the country.
The 7.7 magnitude quake struck near the city of Mandalay at around 12.50m local time (6.20am UK time) on Friday while Myanmar is in the grips of a bloody civil war.
The number of people confirmed dead after the quake stands at more than 1,700, with 3,400 others injured and 300 missing, according to pro-military government Telegram channels, citing the country’s rulers.
Image: Chinese rescuers prepare to carry out a search and rescue operation in Mandalay. Pic: Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua via AP)
But the US Geological Survey’s (USGS) predictive modelling estimates that the number of dead will increase into the thousands, and could reach 10,000.
It comes as rescue and relief efforts in the country have been hampered by the ongoing civil war, which has raged since 2021.
Image: Buddhist monks walk past a collapsed building in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Pic: AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo
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0:17
Monks film as building collapses
The Karen National Union (KNU), one of Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armies, has said in a statement that the military government, known as a junta, is continuing to “carry out airstrikes targeting civilian areas”.
It said the strikes come “even as the population suffers tremendously from the earthquake”.
The KNU said that under normal circumstances, the military would be prioritising relief efforts after an earthquake, but instead it is focused on “deploying forces to attack its people”.
The Free Burma Rangers, a relief organisation, said military jets launched airstrikes and drone attacks in Karen state, near the KNU headquarters, in the south of the country, shortly after the quake on Friday.
It came before there were reports of mortar and drone attacks on Saturday.
Image: A Karen National Union soldier in 2024. Pic: Reuters
The junta has not confirmed whether or not it has been carrying out strikes since the disaster.
The epicentre of the quake was in an area held by junta forces, but the devastation is widespread and also affected some territory held by armed resistance movements.
On Sunday, the opposition National Unity Government, which includes remnants of the government ousted in a 2021 coup, said anti-junta militias under its command would pause all offensive military action for two weeks.
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0:38
Rescuers look for survivors of Myanmar earthquake
Image: A Buddhist monk walks near a pagoda in Mandalay after the earthquake. Pic: AP
Richard Horsey, the senior Myanmar adviser at Crisis Group, which works to resolve armed conflicts, said some anti-junta forces have halted their offensives, but fighting continues elsewhere.
“The regime also continues to launch airstrikes, including in affected areas. That needs to stop,” he said.
He claimed that the junta was not providing much visible support in quake-hit areas.
“Local fire brigades, ambulance crews, and community organisations have mobilised, but the military – who would normally be mobilised to support in such a crisis – are nowhere to be seen,” Mr Horsey said.
Image: Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar. Pic: Reuters
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0:18
Building in Thailand collapses after earthquake
The junta has said the earthquake is one of Myanmar’s strongest in a century – while the USGS suggests financial losses due to the disaster could exceed the country’s annual economic output.
While emergency rescue teams have started trickling into the area hardest hit by the quake, efforts have been hindered by damaged roads, downed bridges, poor communications and the challenges of operating in a country in the middle of a civil war.
Many areas still have not been reached.
Image: Rescuers workers at the site of a collapsed building in Mandalay: Pic: Myo Kyaw Soe/Xinhua via AP
Image: A building tilts precariously in Mandalay, Myanmar. Pic: Reuters
Most rescues occur within the first 24 hours after a disaster, with the chances of survival diminishing as each day passes.
Neighbouring Thailand was also shaken, such as in the capital, Bangkok, where 18 people were killed, including 11 who died when an under-construction skyscraper collapsed. At least 76 people are missing and believed to be trapped under the debris.
Twelve Chinese nationals are among the injured, according to Chinese state media.
Image: The earthquake struck Myanmar and Thailand, and tremors also affected Laos, Vietnam, and Bangladesh
Image: Debris of a damaged building in Mandalay. Pic: AP
An initial report on earthquake relief efforts issued on Saturday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted the severe damage or destruction of many health facilities in Myanmar.
And it warned that a “severe shortage of medical supplies is hampering response efforts, including trauma kits, blood bags, anaesthetics, assistive devices, essential medicines, and tents for health workers”.
India, China and Thailand are among the neighbours that have sent relief materials and teams, along with aid and personnel.
The UK government has announced a package of £10m to support the people of Myanmar in the aftermath of the quake.
Four years of civil war
Myanmar has been locked in a conflict involving multiple armed opposition groups since a 2021 coup, when the military seized power from the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Many places are now dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach.
More than three million people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.
A man inside Mandalay has told Sky News bodies remain under “collapsed and inclining” buildings after the Myanmar earthquake – as a woman was freed from rubble after 91 hours.
The local inside Myanmarsaid many of the structures in the city were wrecked or badly damaged after the 7.7 magnitude quake on Friday, adding: “There are some bodies, some dead bodies, that still remain and other destruction”.
Meanwhile, in a televised address, Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing said the number of dead had risen to 2,719 and is expected to exceed 3,000.
Some 4,521 people have been injured, while a further 441 are missing.
More than 10,000 buildings are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Myanmar, the World Health Organisation said.
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0:41
Before and after: Myanmar earthquake
Smell of dead bodies near destroyed buildings
In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, which was close to the quake’s epicentre, 50 children and two teachers were killed when their preschool collapsed, the United Nations said.
The local in the city told Sky News that “a lot of local assistance associations like charity groups are still struggling with digging out the corpses, the dead bodies, from the destruction”.
He said that “when we pass near the destructions, the collapsed building or very damaged building, we can smell” dead bodies.
“The smell of the dead bodies after four days… it still remains,” he said, before adding: “For the social assistance association… they need permission [to give aid] especially from the government.
“If they don’t have permission, then they cannot do anything.”
Image: People sheltering in a makeshift tent camp in Mandalay. Pic: Reuters
He also said others in Mandalay are struggling after the earthquake, which followed the city being affected by cyclones, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the civil war in Myanmar – where a junta seized power in a coup in 2021.
“Some people, they say they have nothing at all,” the local added. “They have no more home, they have no more belongings, because its already damaged.”
Woman freed after 91 hours under rubble
It comes after the fire department in Myanmar’s capital freed a woman trapped under rubble 91 hours after the building collapsed.
The 63-year-old woman was freed early on Tuesday in Naypyidaw.
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As the country continues to recover, a worker from the International Rescue Committee said people fear aftershocks and are sleeping outside on roads or in open fields.
Communities are struggling to meet basic needs such as access to clean water and sanitation, and emergency teams are working “tirelessly” to locate survivors and provide aid, the UN said in a report.
Rescue efforts have been complicated by the civil war, as rebel groups say the junta has conducted airstrikes, even after the quake, while NGOs fear that certain areas could be denied vital supplies.
“Myanmar’s military has a longstanding practice of denying aid to areas where groups who resist it are active,” said Joe Freeman, a researcher with Amnesty Myanmar.
“It must immediately allow unimpeded access to all humanitarian organisations and remove administrative barriers delaying needs assessments.”
The father of a paramedic killed by Israel in Gaza has told Sky News he would have been on the mission to rescue wounded colleagues, but was ill that day and so his son went instead.
“It was supposed to be me, you know. I was on duty that night but fell ill and sent him in my place.”
Speaking at his son’s funeral, Hassan Abu Hileh said Israel is to blame for the death of Mohammed and the other 14 men.
Image: Hassan Abu Hileh’s son Mohammed was killed when Israeli forces said they ‘opened fire on suspicious vehicles’
“We need protection from the international community. We need protection for medical teams. We are medics-soldiers of duty, not armed fighters. We carry out humanitarian work. If I see someone who needs medical attention, I’m obligated to serve them,” he said.
The bodies of the Red Crescent and United Nations workers went missing around eight days ago. Despite repeated requests to search for them, all denied by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the UN eventually found 14 bodies buried under sand in a mass grave. One is still missing.
They were still wearing their uniforms.
Image: Funerals took place on Monday for medics killed in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
The director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza has accused Israel of murdering the emergency workers. “We arrived at the scene of the crime to retrieve the bodies and found that all of them had been shot directly in the upper part of their bodies and buried,” said Dr Bashir Murad.
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“The ambulances were also destroyed and buried.”
Image: Dr Bashir Murad, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza, said the workers had been shot
The bodies were found in sand in the south of the Gaza Strip in what Jonathan Whittall, Gaza head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, called a “mass grave”, marked with the emergency light from a crushed ambulance.
Mr Whittall posted pictures and video of Red Crescent teams digging in the sand for the bodies and workers laying them out on the ground, covered in plastic sheets.
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1:22
Bodies of aid workers found in Gaza
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has denied killing innocent medical workers and said Israeli forces opened fire on suspicious vehicles that were travelling without coordination and in an active combat zone.
“The IDF did not randomly attack an ambulance on March 23,” claimed a spokesman.
“Last Sunday, several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles.
“Earlier that day, cars that did not belong to terrorists were coordinated and passed safely on the same route.”
We have asked the IDF why the bodies were found in a mass grave but have received no comment.
More than 400 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the UN.
According to the UN, at least 1,060 healthcare workers have been killed in the 18 months since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
The UN is reducing its international staff in Gaza by a third because of safety concerns.
China’s military has said it’s begun joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan.
It said the exercises were intended to “serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence”, and called the self-governed island’s president a “parasite”.
China considers Taiwan to be its own territory and has threatened to use force to gain control.
Image: A poster accompanying the drills titled ‘Closing In’. Pic: Eastern Theater Command
Its military released a poster entitled “Closing In”, showing Chinese ships and fighter jets circling the island and the words “sinister moves of Taiwan separatists courting disaster upon themselves”.
It comes after the Taiwanese president, President Lai Ching-Te, called China a “foreign hostile force” last month.
He announced measures including a proposal to re-instate a military court system in response to a perceived growth in Chinese infiltration of Taiwanese society and “grey-zone” tactics.
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Announcing the joint exercises, China’s eastern theatre command depicted the president as a cartoon bug held by a pair of chopsticks above a burning Taiwan.
“Parasite poisoning Taiwan island. Parasite hollowing Island out. Parasite courting ultimate destruction,” the animation said.
Footage also showed the capital Taipei being aimed at from above and military vehicles patrolling the streets.
Image: An image of Taiwan from above. Pic: Eastern Theatre Command/Reuters
The eastern theatre command said on its official WeChat social media account: “The focus is on exercises such as combat readiness patrols at sea and in the air, seizing comprehensive control, striking maritime and land targets and imposing blockade controls on key areas and routes.”
Taiwan’s defence ministry said China’s Shandong aircraft carrier group had entered its response area and it had tracked 19 Chinese navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island in a 24-hour period.
It said the group had dispatched military aircraft and ships and activated land-based missile systems in response.
There is no doubt Beijing is seizing an opportunity here.
The recent hardening of both rhetoric and policy from Taiwan’s president provides an opening for China, not just to practise blockade scenarios and sow feelings of insecurity among Taiwanese, but crucially also to test the resolve of the island’s longstanding backer, the US.
It has been a nervous few months in Taipei as they’ve watched President Trump row back support for Ukraine.
An initial reluctance from the new administration to provide clear condemnation or pushback will have ultimately emboldened Beijing.
However, there have been a few hints in recent days that Washington may ultimately be coming back in behind Taiwan; the hardening of language in a few key statements, a visit by Alaska’s governor and the quiet release of $870m of previously frozen military aid, to name just a few.
Exactly where Trump stands on the Taiwan question is still unclear, he remains a volatile and transactional actor.
It is not impossible, for instance, that Taiwan’s future could be used as a bargaining chip within some future wide-reaching deal with China.
Today’s drills will serve as a test for all involved. Is US resolve indeed hardening, to what extent, and how publicly?
Either way, an intense period of cross-strait relations feels inevitable.
“The Chinese Communist Party has continued to increase its military activities around Taiwan and in the Indo-Pacific region… and has become the biggest ‘troublemaker’ in the international community,” the statement added.
The drills come two weeks after a large exercise in mid-March, when Beijing sent a large number of drones and ships towards the island.