The UN Aid Chief says the world must “gather behind the people of Myanmar.”
Myanmar’s death toll from the major earthquake rose above 3,300 as UN aid directors called on the world to help disaster-hit countries.
The shaking of magnitude 7.7 that hit Southeast Asian countries on March 28 caused 3,354 deaths and 4,508 injuries, leaving 220 other people missing. New figures issued by the state media on Saturday.
The UN’s highest aid official met with the victims of Mandalay, a central city of Myanmar, located near the epicenter and now addressed the serious damage throughout the city, describing the destruction as “extraordinary.”
“The world must gather behind the people of Myanmar,” Tom Fletcher wrote in X’s post.
He praised the humanitarian and community groups who led the response to trembling with “courage, skill, determination.”
“Many people lost everything, but they kept going out to support the survivors,” Fletcher said.
At Mandalay #Myanmar, we meet the community at the epicenter of the earthquake.
The destruction is incredible. My life was lost. The house was destroyed. My livelihood has shattered. But the resilience is incredible.
The United Nations is here to support it. The world must gather behind the people of Myanmar. pic.twitter.com/ol6htujrvf
– Tom Fletcher (@unreliefchief) April 5, 2025
The new toll was announced after the country’s military government prime minister Min Ang Fräning returned to Bangkok’s regional summit on Friday from a rare foreign trip in Bangkok.
A spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs said on Friday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a ceasefire to be permanent in the civil war in Myanmar, and that elections should be “comprehensive and reliable.”
China, Russia and India were one of the first countries to provide support, sending rescue teams to Myanmar to find survivors.
While the United States has traditionally been at the forefront of international disaster relief, President Donald Trump has dismantled the country’s humanitarian aid agency.
Washington said on Friday it added $7 million in addition to its previous $2 million support to Myanmar, adding that it is unfair to expect to maintain major humanitarian relief around the world.
Since defeating elected private government Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run Myanmar and has left basic services, including the tattered economy and healthcare, a situation worsened by the March 28 earthquake.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Friday that the military government is restricting aid supply to earthquake-hit areas where communities did not support the rules.
The UN office said the 16 incident occurred after the ceasefire was declared Wednesday, investigating 53 reported troops’ attacks against the enemy.
