Emergency earthquake relief for Myanmar is slowed by the destruction and by mistrust of the ruling military junta.
More than two weeks after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar, leaving more than 3,500 dead and an unknown number injured, rescue work has turned into efforts to recover the bodies that have been trapped under the rubble of buildings that collapsed in the quake.
According to the UN Refugee Agency website, the epicenter of the March 28 quake near the country’s second largest city of Mandalay resulted in widespread loss of life, injury and destruction. An estimated 15 million people have been affected nationwide, the agency says. The hardest-hit areas, it says, are home to many internally displaced people forced to flee during the past four years of conflict, worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis.
Maryknoll Father John Barth, who serves in neighboring Thailand, says it is extremely difficult to travel into Myanmar, much less Mandalay. “The airport in Mandalay is closed due to earthquake damage; the roads leading to Mandalay are damaged in some places,” he says. “It is difficult to send relief items there. The military junta doesn’t want foreigners in the country because of the war.”
Myanmar ruled by a brutal military junta
Myanmar’s military took over the country in a 2021 coup, and according to Amnesty International, “has killed more than 6,000 people, arbitrarily detained more than 20,000, and renewed judicial executions.” This organization says that human rights groups have documented the military’s torture of detainees, indiscriminate attacks and the denial of humanitarian aid, “which may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
From Thailand, Father Barth assists people who were displaced by the conflict in Myanmar, coordinating humanitarian aid for internally displaced people, mostly across the border in Myanmar, providing food, medicine and other essentials.
Maryknoll Father John Barth (left) walks through the Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp in Thailand, which hosts thousands of refugees from Myanmar, with the camp’s chaplain, Father Joseph Su Reh. (Paul Jeffrey/Thailand)
Organizations “doing their best” to send aid
Father Barth says that so far, in Bangkok, he has made bank deposits to help the Church in neighboring Myanmar. The aid sent by Maryknoll in New York goes directly to the archdiocese of Mandalay to buy emergency supplies to donate to earthquake victims.
“We don’t send relief items or food into the country; the government won’t allow it,” Father Barth says. “That’s why we send aid to the archdiocese of Mandalay, where they can arrange for the distribution of emergency items: bottled water, rice, dried food, hygiene items, medicine, tents, et cetera.”
“Right now, they need everything,” he says. “Many of the people, even the archbishop in Mandalay, sleep in the road outside what is left of the archdiocesan cathedral and center due to the aftershocks that can come at any time and topple a damaged building that is still standing.”
Father Barth says that the military junta “has tied the hands of the U.N. and NGOs wishing to work in the country,” as it sees them as a threat, adding that Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country where the military “doesn’t look kindly on Christians, Catholics and Muslims.”
He says volunteers and humanitarian workers from other organizations are doing their best to assist the victims in this tragedy, despite the restrictions and pressure from the military junta.
“Catholic Relief Services has an office in the former capital Yangon, but getting around the country is nearly impossible,” he says. “There are military roadblocks on all the major roads.”
Catholic cardinal makes urgent appeal
Father Barth said that Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, archbishop of Yangon, had made an appeal for funds to assist the population with their urgent needs. “There are over 3.5 million people already displaced in the country because of earlier aggressive military bombing by the junta, loss of their lands and burning of their homes,” the missioner says. “Now the number of people internally displaced will grow even faster due to the earthquake!”
In an interview with Vatican News, Cardinal Bo announced the creation of MERCI (Myanmar Earthquake Response Church Initiative), a campaign to “set up an emergency appeal and response.”
Father Barth says the population is “suffering greatly” and that “the military government does not care about the majority of the people, whom they are fighting in a guerrilla war.”
The government sees the common people as the enemy, he says. “The country has many tribes that never worked together with the government or other tribes for that matter.”
Service to the most deprived and vulnerable
Father Barth, originally from Buffalo, New York, has spent much of his mission life serving refugees and people displaced by conflict in countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, South Sudan and Uganda.
After the coup in Myanmar in February 2021, he returned to Thailand to help support the Diocese of Chiang Mai in responding to the crisis of mass displacement caused by the military takeover across the border.
“There are nine refugee camps just inside the Thai border, housing more than 100,000 people,” Father Barth says. “These people are no longer receiving food or medical care due to President Trump’s misguided cuts to the USAID budget last month. It is a humanitarian disaster.”
He says, “Thai officials refused to accept new refugees in Thailand years ago, meaning that families displaced by the violence had to remain in Myanmar. Many have no place to hide but the jungle.”
Besides providing food for the body, Father Barth also offers nourishment for the spirit, as through his example and service, many have witnessed faith in action.
To support Father Barth’s efforts to assist the people of Myanmar, click here.
Featured image: A Chinese Red Cross International emergency response team works at a collapsed residential building in Mandalay, Myanmar April 2, 2025, in the aftermath of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit midday March 28. As the death toll following the massive earthquake is expected to reach at least 3,000, humanitarian organizations in the region, like Catholic Relief Services, are working round the clock to get essential supplies to those in need. (OSV News photo/China Daily via Reuters)
