As China, Russia rush to aid Myanmar, Trump USAID cuts hamper efforts
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The Trump administration had kicked off USAID-wide layoffs as the agency was preparing a response to the earthquake in Myanmar.
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Rescuers work with the help of heavy machinery at the Sky Villa Condo that collapsed in Friday's earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, Sunday, March 30, 2025 (AP)
The United States has yet to send significant aid to Myanmar following a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake at a time when numerous other countries, including China, Russia, and India, dispatched emergency teams and supplies, The New York Times reported.
According to the report, while President Donald Trump assured that US assistance was on its way, a USAID assessment team is not expected to arrive until Wednesday.
The delay stands in contrast to China’s immediate deployment of 126 rescue workers, medical kits, drones, and earthquake detectors to Mandalay, one of the worst-hit areas.
Shortcomings and layoffs
The earthquake has killed over 1,700 people and left over 3,400 others wounded, with the toll expected to rise.
While the US Embassy in Myanmar announced up to $2 million in aid to be distributed through humanitarian organizations, The New York Times noted that the response has been hindered by cuts to USAID.
On Friday, as some agency employees were preparing a disaster response, they received layoff notices, effectively limiting US capacity to respond, the report said. Trump administration official Tim Meisburger reportedly told staff that while there would be a response, USAID’s capabilities were not what they once were.
Former USAID official Michael Schiffer told The New York Times that America’s absence in Myanmar’s relief efforts could harm its global standing.
“Being charitable and being seen as charitable serves American foreign policy,” he said. “If we don’t show up and China shows up, that sends a pretty strong message.”
Biggest earthquake in decades
Earthquakes are commonplace in Myanmar, which lies along the Sagaing fault, however, the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit the country on Friday is the biggest in decades, and the tremors severely damaged buildings in Bangkok, hundreds of kilometers away from the earthquake's epicenter.
AFP journalists witnessed a centuries-old Buddhist pagoda in Mandalay being reduced to rubble, while the nearby monastery also collapsed, resulting in the death of one monk and injuries to some people, as a soldier at a nearby checkpoint recounted how they pulled out some individuals and took them to the hospital.
In Bangkok, as Saturday drew into a second night, rescuers continued working to search for survivors trapped under the rubble of a collapsed 30-story skyscraper under construction.
'We need aid'
"We need aid," Thar Aye, 68, a Mandalay resident, told AFP. "We don't have enough of anything," he added.
Myanmar's military leader Min Aung Hlaing made an unusually rare request for international assistance on Friday, despite the country's historical reluctance under past military regimes to accept foreign aid even following catastrophic natural events.
Aid agencies have warned that Myanmar cannot handle a disaster of this scale, as approximately 3.5 million people were already displaced by the ongoing civil war—many facing hunger—even before the earthquake hit, while the UN humanitarian agency OCHA reported on Saturday that the emergency response was being hampered by a severe shortage of medical supplies and damaged roads.
