TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Myanmar authorities observed a national minute of silence on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, to honor the victims of the powerful earthquake that has claimed over 2,700 lives, including 50 children at a preschool near the city of Mandalay.
As reported by Al Jazeera, Myanmar's senior military leader, General Min Aung Hlaing, stated in a televised address that the death toll had reached 2,719 and is expected to exceed 3,000. In Mandalay, the epicenter of the disaster in central Myanmar, sirens sounded at 12:51 pm (06:21 GMT), the exact time the earthquake struck, prompting residents to observe a moment of silence.
Outside the Sky Villa apartment complex, one of the most severely damaged sites in the city, rescue workers paused their efforts. They stood in a line with their hands folded behind their backs, paying their respects. Officials and rescue personnel stood behind the line, while relatives stood further back. Sirens wailed, and the Myanmar flag flew at half-mast on bamboo poles attached to the rescue tent.
According to General Min Aung Hlaing, the estimated death toll is likely to surpass 3,000, with 4,521 people injured and 441 missing. "Among the missing, most are assumed to be dead. There is a narrow chance for them to remain alive," he said in a speech reported by CNA.
The earthquake, which occurred on a Friday afternoon, is the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian nation in over a century, causing the collapse of ancient pagodas and modern buildings. The disaster has inflicted significant damage on Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay, and Naypyitaw, the capital city built by the previous military junta.
This earthquake is the latest in a series of crises to impact the impoverished nation of 53 million people. The disaster compounds the challenges faced by Myanmar following the 2021 military coup, which reversed a decade of democratic progress and severely damaged the country's economy.
The ongoing civil war in Myanmar has also complicated efforts to provide aid to the injured and displaced. Amnesty International has called on the military to allow humanitarian assistance to reach areas outside its control.
"Myanmar’s military has a longstanding practice of denying aid to areas where groups who resist it are active," said Amnesty researcher Joe Freeman, as quoted by Al Jazeera. “It must immediately allow unimpeded access to all humanitarian organisations and remove administrative barriers delaying needs assessments."
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