A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar on Friday, killing more than 1,700 people. It is the strongest since the 2023 Turkey-Syria quake and also hit Thailand.
The earthquake is the first major disaster affected by Trump’s USAID cuts.
In 2024 the agency spent $240 million in Myanmar and the US funded about a third of the country’s multilateral humanitarian assistance.
But since early 2025 the number of USAID programmes in Myanmar has fallen from 18 to three.
Trump has pledged assistance, but with hundreds of people hidden under the rubble, and many aid workers gone, delays can be deadly. In 2008 Myanmar’s military put off foreign help after Cyclone Nargis, likely worsening its death toll.
Friday’s quake deepens an ongoing crisis. Some 3.5 million people have been displaced by a civil war since 2021, and 20 million needed aid prior to the earthquake.
Only 5 per cent of this aid had been raised.
Photo credit: Thein Zaw/AP
