Last Friday, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar, its epicenter 17.2 kilometers (almost 11 miles) from Mandalay — the country’s second-largest city — and 16 kilometers (about 10 miles) northwest of Sagaing, devastating the war-torn nation. As of April 1, the death toll stands at more than 2,700, with 4,500 injured and 441 missing. 

In Mandalay, up to 80% of houses have been damaged, part of more than 10,000 structures collapsed or severely impacted across central and northwest Myanmar, including three hospitals destroyed and 22 partially damaged, according to various news reports. 

“In towns, many religious buildings were damaged because they are large and old, with some even collapsing,” said Sylvia, a woman from central Myanmar who, like others interviewed for this report, asked that her real name be withheld due to fears of government reprisal. She listed several Catholic churches, Buddhist pagodas and mosques destroyed in and around her community, noting that her area has received no government assistance — and expects none. 

“We have always relied on a community-based welfare association,” she explained, adding that these groups are already helping each other. In Christian communities, Sylvia noted, these informal aid networks operate through the churches.

Jonah, a 19-year-old Christian from the Karen ethnic group living in Yangon, said, “The SAC [State Administration Council] is blocking international rescuers and journalists from entering Sagaing [the quake-affected area], because they don’t want negative news about the SAC to spread —revealing how ineffective the junta is at rescuing civilians.” 

He said that, in Mandalay, one of the hardest-hit areas, his neighbor lost seven family members, and some of his friends have become homeless.

Even in Yangon, far from the epicenter, Jonah (a pseudonym) and his family are sleeping on the streets, too afraid to return to their apartment building. He hasn’t been able to reach his girlfriend to confirm her safety since the quake, due to internet and phone line disruptions — a tactic the junta uses to block information from reaching the outside world or spreading between regions in Myanmar.

 A community leader from the Chin ethnic group lamented that families are cut off and unable to check on loved ones — a sentiment echoed by Thoon, a college student who can’t reach her family in Mandalay. 

“The phone lines aren’t working, and with no electricity, we don’t even know what’s happening in our own neighborhood,” Thoon said. “There’s no clear or reliable information from the government, so we have to try to update each other.”

The 2021 military coup, which ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected government, ignited a full-scale civil war, leaving more than 80% of the country’s territory under resistance control, while the junta’s SAC retains authority over urban areas like Yangon in central Myanmar. 

Beyond blocking international aid, the junta escalated its repression after the March 28 earthquake by launching airstrikes and drone attacks on resistance-held areas, targeting victims in regions such as Ley Wah in Karen State, Naungcho in Shan State, and Chaung-U in Sagaing. The bombings continued for two days, totaling 11 strikes and killing 10 people. In Shan State’s Nung Leng Village, residents reported that Burmese troops — known as the Tatmadaw — fired rockets from fighter jets, destroying most houses and looting many. However, a Nung Khoe resident noted, “Fortunately, no locals were harmed.”

While the SAC continues to increase the suffering of its own people, it is also requesting international assistance — expecting that aid to be handed over to the generals as the internationally recognized government of Myanmar. But trust in the junta is nonexistent.

“No one trusts the SAC with money,” said Sylvia. “We just donate to social welfare organizations and church-based groups. There are many Myanmar diaspora in other countries because of the revolution, and they’re supporting community to community, people to people — definitely not the SAC.”

She expressed frustration that the generals could still receive an international payday. “U.N. agencies and government funding — there’s no reason that should have to go through the SAC.”

The earthquake affected both resistance- and SAC-controlled areas, compounding existing challenges. In Yangon, one of the few places with electricity, power was already limited to four hours a day since the coup; since the quake, it has been reduced to just two. “I have to charge my phone at the supermarkets,” said Jonah.

Even before the earthquake, Myanmar faced a severe humanitarian crisis, with 3.5- million people displaced and nearly 20 million in need of assistance — figures that are likely to rise due to the quake and the junta’s subsequent air and drone strikes. As relief efforts are hampered by power outages, fuel shortages, disrupted communications, and temperatures exceeding 104°F, more deaths are expected.

International observers and Burmese citizens alike distrust the junta’s official casualty figures. In response, the National Unity Government (NUG) — Myanmar’s shadow government formed in 2021 by elected lawmakers and activists to oppose the military junta — announced it is compiling independent reports on the dead and wounded. Once verified outside the control of the SAC, the true numbers are expected to be significantly higher.

“In my town, the pastor from the Baptist church came to collect data because the Catholic diocesan center, that usually collects data, was damaged,” said Sylvia. With no government support, she added, communities are trying to rescue those trapped under the rubble “without machinery, removing debris with their bare hands.”

In Bangkok, 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away from the epicenter, the quake killed 18 people, injured 33 and left 78 missing — most of them Myanmar migrant workers at a collapsed construction site. Many had fled the war back home, only to fall victim to the disaster abroad.

Antonio Graceffo, Ph.D., is a China economic analyst based in Asia.