Few doctors, throttled aid: How Myanmar’s military worsened the earthquake death toll

Burmese academic Sophia Htwe spent hours desperately trying to call home from Australia after the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck her hometown in Myanmar in late March, learning that a childhood friend had been trapped in the rubble.

Friends from the central-northwestern region of Sagaing told her that she had been freed but died from her injuries after receiving no medical treatment.

“That just really broke me… This is actually the failure of the military junta and the military coup,” she said, referring to the military’s attacks on healthcare since seizing power in February 2021.