Rain complicates recovery in quake-hit Myanmar as death toll rises

death toll from a devastating earthquake has risen to nearly 3,500 people.

The 7.7-magnitude quake struck on March 28, razing buildings, cutting off power and destroying bridges and roads across the country.

Damage has been particularly severe in the city of Sagaing near the epicentre, as well as in Mandalay, Myanmar's second city and home to more than 1.7 million people.

State media in the military junta-led country now say that the earthquake has caused 3,471 confirmed deaths and injured 4,671 people, while 214 remain missing.

With people either having lost their homes entirely or reluctant to spend time in cracked and unstable structures, many Mandalay residents have been sleeping outside in tents.

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When wind and rain began battering the rudimentary shelters on Saturday evening, victims were forced to choose between passing the night in dry but risky buildings or outdoors in the elements.

«People are trying to rebuild their lives now,» said United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher in a video filmed in Mandalay, posted to X on Sunday.

«They need food. They need water. They need the power back on,» he said.

Many people in the area are still without shelter, he said, describing the scale of damage in the area as «epic».

«We need to get tents and hope to survivors as they rebuild their shattered lives,» Fletcher wrote in another post.

Aid experts warn that rainy conditions and scorching heat increase the risk of disease outbreaks at outdoor camps where victims were in temporary shelter.

Ongoing attacks, aftershocks

Myanmar has been ruled by junta leader Min Aung Hlaing since 2021, when his military seized power in a coup that overthrew the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

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