Myanmar junta limits aid in earthquake-stricken areas, continues assault, U.N. says
Reuters
Myanmar’s military junta is withholding critical humanitarian aid for earthquake victims in areas where it perceives opposition to its rule, the United Nations human rights office said.
The U.N. also said it is investigating dozens of reported attacks by the ruling junta against its opponents since the earthquake struck in late March 2025. Those include airstrikes, 16 of which came after an early April ceasefire declaration.
The humanitarian situation, especially in areas beyond the junta’s control, is catastrophic, U.N. rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said. The 7.7 magnitude quake, one of the strongest to hit Myanmar in a century, jolted homes of 28 million people, toppling buildings, flattening communities, and leaving many residents without food and water.
A week after the disaster, the reported death toll exceeded 3,000.
“Airstrikes are alarming, shocking and need to stop straight away — the focus needs to be on humanitarian recovery,” Shamdasani said.
Nations rushed to aid the Southeast Asian country, providing critical supplies and rescue and recovery operations.
The junta declared a ceasefire days after the earthquake, as did at least one of the ethnic armed groups battling the military regime in the nation’s four-year civil war, The Irrawaddy reported. However, clashes have continued in areas hit hard by the earthquake, where regime airstrikes have targeted civilians and resistance groups, according to the Myanmar-based newspaper.
“Limitations of aid is part of a strategy to prevent aid getting to the populations it [the junta] sees as not supporting its seizure of power back in 2021,” said James Rodehaver, head of the U.N. human rights office’s Myanmar team.
Millions of people have been affected by the widening civil war, which was triggered by the junta’s February 2021 coup that ousted the democratically elected government. The nation’s mainly agrarian economy has been decimated, more than 3.5 million people have been driven from their homes, and health care and other critical services are devastated.
