UN agencies estimate that around 17 million people have been affected in some way by the earthquake, with the death toll standing at 3,700. Fears for the rainy season now approaching. Official statements on the ceasefire have been disregarded: hundreds of bombings have taken place in recent weeks. Fundraising continues, promoted by the PIME Foundation.

Three weeks after an earthquake devastated Mandalay and central Myanmar, the Church remains close to the faithful and the victims, offering material and spiritual support. While many churches remain unusable, Holy Week is being celebrated in camps for displaced people and in parish halls. Maximilian, a Caritas volunteer, says that despite the destruction and the pain, people support each other in a true experience of rebirth.

A humanitarian worker talks to AsiaNews about the situation in the areas affected by the earthquake that struck in late March. The military often blocks loads, fuelling fear and uncertainty. The regime, committed to rebuilding its own facilities instead of bringing relief to the population, would like to hide the displaced. No coordinated effort is being made to pull out the dead from the rubble. The needs are huge, but “with the right support, we can reach the most vulnerable.”

A health worker talks to AsiaNews about fleeing her village in Mandalay due to airstrikes by junta planes that continued after the earthquake. Only last night, the military announced a 20-day ceasefire in the most affected areas to facilitate aid. But few people trust their words.

Archbishop Marco Tin Win released a message reporting the destruction of the diocesan house in Mandalay forcing the priests to sleep outdoors together with others. Despite calls for a stop to the hostilities, the military junta continues to attack resistance forces, but has admitted that it also hit a group of Chinese rescuers.

Some rural areas have been as badly affected as cities. Almost 100 people have reportedly died and 3,000 homes destroyed in a well-known tourist destination. Residents were already hard at work recovering from the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi in September 2024. While the main ethnic militias have joined a ceasefire proposal, many fear the military junta will hold up aid.

Travel remains difficult with people still gripped by fear after Friday’s devastating quake in the country’s central regions. In addition to the aftershocks, people face ongoing military operations. “It's like shooting a wounded person,” said Sister Valentina Pozzi, the mother superior of the institute founded by Fr Carlo Salerio, which today has 380 local members. “It is a miracle that there were no victims among the sisters we were able to contact,” she told AsiaNews.

A Taipei emergency team waited in vain for two days without being allowed to enter the country, devastated by an earthquake. The perverse interweaving of political issues and rescue operations for people under the rubble. No entry even for foreign journalists. A ceasefire is essential so that aid does not also become a weapon of war.

The prelate released a message on behalf of the Bishops' Conference while hundreds are still under the rubble. Despite the natural calamity, Myanmar’s air force conducted air strikes yesterday. Twinned with Myanmar for many years, the Archdiocese of Tokyo expressed its closeness. Showing its resilience, St Michael's Church in Mandalay will rise out of the rubble for a third time.

It is feared that the death tool will be high after a 7.7 quake struck the country, already devastated by four years of civil war. Local sources report the collapse of temples, mosques and churches, as well as bridges and other structures, some housing displaced people who had fled junta attacks. Roads between the main cities are closed. A priest offers a prayer for Myanmar: “How long, O Lord?”

On the feast day of St Joseph, the episcopal ordination of Mgr Raymond Wai Lin Htun, presided over by Card Charles Maung Bo. The Archbishop of Yangon warns against ethnic divisions: ‘Can we give in to the temptation to treat others on the basis of man-made identities, when instead we are all Children of God created in his image?’

Today's news: Turkish police have arrested 282 alleged PKK members, the ousting of pro-Kurdish mayors in the southeast continues; Fr Donald killed by Sagaing militiamen from an anti-military junta rebel group; Indian university expels hundreds of Nepalese students protesting the suicide of a fellow student who was the victim of harassment on campus; The most authoritative polling institute in Hong Kong interrupts its surveys due to the clampdown by the authorities.

Southeast Asia expert  Bridget Welsh analyses Kuala Lumpur's first steps at the helm of the bloc: the leadership will be successful if it puts ‘the interests of those who live in the region above those of its leaders’. ‘Calling for “inclusive elections” in Myanmar contradicts the real situation on the ground’.

Pneg Deren was detained after he travelled to Yunnan for talks with Chinese officials, local media report. Despite pressure from Beijing, his armed group, the MNDAA, maintains control of Lashio, a city in Shan State. Meanwhile, junta planes bomb the area, killing at least 12, including eight children. A Baptist church was also struck.

Msgr Celso Ba Shwe - Bishop of Loikaw - took part in the celebration that every year on the third Sunday of November recalls the bond of solidarity between Japanese Catholics and the Church in former Burma, now wounded by war. Support for schools in the forest through the Seeds of Hope initiative. Archbishop Kikuchi: ‘Hope is born from the heart of those who walk together’.

Forced to abandon the cathedral in November 2023 due to fighting, the bishop of Loikaw continues to care for the faithful of his diocese, now scattered in 200 refugee camps in remote areas. Speaking to AsiaNews, he talked about the tragedy of young people fighting and reflects on how these communities in Kayah State, despite their great difficulties, today remind him of the first Christians. For him, the Church is where people share and love each other.

The increasing conquests by the Brotherhood Alliance, composed of three powerful ethnic militias, are highlighting the difficulties of administering different territories. A challenge that could explain the difficulties in taking control of even the largest cities in Myanmar. The involvement of China is also emerging with increasing clarity.

Seven years after the great flight of hundreds of thousands of members of the Muslim minority from Myanmar, the situation in Bangladesh's reception centres is still an emergency. The account of a Jesuit, who has been involved in aid and shelter work for years. Dhaka has limited resources, but we need stability and peace in former Burma before repatriating them.

Arbitrary arrests, humiliating body searches, and denied pre- or post-natal care are the focus of a briefing paper by the International Commission of Jurists, a Geneva-based NGO, with testimonies and complaints from members of a group "targeted" by the military three years since the coup. More than 1,500 women are languishing in Myanmar prisons for political reasons.

Fighting has resumed in Shan and Rakhine in recent weeks. The junta’s number two man, General Soe Win, and former president Thein Sein visited Beijing and Qingdao to discuss border stability, trade, and investment. According to some sources, new contracts have also been signed for the purchase of war materiel.

Kim Aris, 47, has accepted on his mother’s behalf the honorary citizenship awarded to her by the town of Abbiategrasso (Italy). Her family does not know where the 79-year-old is being detained nor her health conditions. According to her son, the international community did not understand Aung San Suu Kyi's actions with the Rohingya.

Despite the Internet blockade imposed by the military junta, the United Nations has received “frightening and disturbing reports" of attacks against Rohingya civilians. Increasingly in difficulty on the ground, the junta is fuelling inter-ethnic tensions, enlisting (even forcibly) Rohingya to fight the local ethnic militia. The country is thus reverting to sectarian violence.