BANGKOK — Friday’s deadly earthquake rattled most of Myanmar and Thailand but certain areas sustained the heaviest damage, including flattened buildings and many lost lives.
The death toll of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake on Friday rose quickly in Myanmar and was at 1,644 victims by Sunday. There were a further 3,408 people injured and 139 missing.
In the greater Bangkok area, which took the brunt of the quake in Thailand, officials said Sunday the count was 18 dead, 33 injured and 78 people missing.
Officials were still assessing the damage and any overall estimate remains incomplete. But two days later a clearer picture has emerged about the extent of the destruction.
Myanmar sits on the major north-south Sagaing Fault, which separates the India and Sunda plates, and the widespread damage runs down a wide swath of the middle of the country. The area includes Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city with 1.5 million people that is located near the earthquake’s epicenter.
Critical infrastructure has been destroyed including the historic Ava Bridge connecting Sagaing and Mandalay, Mandalay University and various heritage sites, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement Sunday.
PHOTOS: Officials survey damage in Myanmar's earthquake-devastated central areas
The Southeast Asian nation has been plagued by wars and natural disasters since it became independent from Britain in 1948, when it was still called Burma.
Relief efforts have been complicated with the country embroiled in a civil war that began after the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
The main resistance movement against military rule has issued a statement saying it is unilaterally initiating a two-week ceasefire beginning Sunday in areas of the country affected by the quake.
There was no immediate reaction from the military government, which even before the earthquake - in addition to employing massive repression and state violence - heavily restricted much-needed aid to the more than 3 million people displaced by war.
The army’s ability to facilitate or block food and other assistance has been described as a way of weaponizing aid. Critics of the military government have called repeatedly for outside assistance to be delivered directly to areas under control of the resistance.
The military, which has directly or indirectly ruled Myanmar most of the time since independence, seized power from Suu Kyi’s government as it was about to begin a second five-year term. She and leaders of her National League for Democracy party were jailed, and security forces put down pro-democracy demonstrations with deadly force, leading to the growth of armed resistance, and the army in turn escalating its violence.
Despite a huge disadvantage in weaponry and manpower, pro-democracy fighters allied with ethnic minority groups seeking greater autonomy have successfully battled back, and analysts believe they control a much greater share of territory.
The resistance is coordinated by the self-styled National Unity Government, whose claim to legitimacy is that it was formed by elected lawmakers. The NUG, which operates underground, has an armed wing called the People’s Defense Force.
The PDF is largely a conglomeration of locally formed defense groups, poorly armed but usually with the advantage of fighting on home ground. Their ethnic allies are much more experienced and have even managed in some cases to manufacture their own weapons.
The National Unity Government said in an announcement Saturday that the PDF will implement a two-week pause in offensive military operations starting Sunday in earthquake-affected areas, while retaining the right to self-defense.
It said it would collaborate with the U.N. and international nongovernmental organizations “to ensure security, transportation, and the establishment of temporary rescue and medical camps,” in the areas it controls. It also offered to provide health care professionals loyal to its resistance movement to work with international humanitarian organizations to deliver emergency rescue and medical services in areas under the military’s control, if provided with safety guarantees.
The PDF fighters rarely mount large-scale offensives, sticking mainly to defense and ambush-style attacks, so its ceasefire would be largely symbolic. By taking the moral high ground, it gives its supporters a stronger argument to push for the unrestricted distribution of aid.