“We Thought It Was a Bomb”: A Myanmar mother’s loss between an earthquake and war

Ei Ei Khine Zar Maung was resting in a makeshift brick shelter when a sudden roar split the night. Her nine-year-old son, Kaung Kin Ko Ko, sat beside her, quietly scrolling on her phone.

They had been staying in a hastily constructed brick annex beside a bamboo house in East Myinsaing Village, Kyaukse District, Mandalay Region—one of countless temporary shelters cobbled together as war edges closer to civilian homes.