The North Carolina-based Evangelical humanitarian aid charity Samaritan’s Purse is dispatching an emergency field hospital to Myanmar following a catastrophic 7.7-magnitude earthquake that has claimed over 2,700 lives.
The DC-8 aircraft departed from Greensboro, North Carolina, on Monday, and traveled to Calgary, where it was loaded with a field hospital from Samaritan’s Purse’s Canada office. The plane is also carrying medical supplies and disaster response specialists to aid those affected by the disaster. The charity also deployed team members from its Vietnam and Cambodia offices to make preparations for the emergency field hospital.
The earthquake, which struck Myanmar and parts of Thailand on Friday, caused widespread devastation, including collapsed infrastructure and thousands of injuries.
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In Myanmar alone, the official death toll rose to 2,719 on Tuesday, with 441 people still missing and over 4,000 injured, Myanmar’s military ruler Min Aung Hlaing said, as quoted by Reuters. The death toll is expected to surpass 3,000.
In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, the stench of decaying bodies filled the streets on Sunday as residents frantically cleared rubble by hand, searching for survivors, The Associated Press reports.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by damaged roads, unstable bridges and poor communication networks, with the World Health Organization stating that the devastation has overwhelmed healthcare systems in affected areas.
“Now, families are grieving the loss of loved ones and many are left with nothing — sleeping outside in the elements as aftershocks continue,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, in a statement sent to The Christian Post. “Samaritan’s Purse is responding in Jesus’ Name to bring relief to those who are hurting.”
Graham urged Christians to “pray for all those affected and for our teams as they serve.”
Samaritan’s Purse’s Disaster Assistance Response Team will provide critical medical care in the hardest-hit areas. The fully equipped emergency field hospital includes two operating theaters, an emergency room, inpatient wards, a pharmacy and a laboratory.
The Evangelical relief agency’s facility is designed to handle a high volume of trauma cases, addressing the urgent need for surgical care, blood transfusions and essential medicine. The DC-8 aircraft also transports 28 disaster response specialists, including doctors and nurses, to support relief efforts on the ground.
Myanmar’s Ministry of Health has requested international assistance, as healthcare facilities in central regions have been left incapacitated. At least three hospitals were destroyed, and 22 others sustained partial damage, forcing patients to be treated outdoors, according to the World Health Organization.
In Mandalay, thousands of residents have spent three nights camping in the streets, fearing aftershocks. The city’s 1,000-bed general hospital was evacuated after sustaining significant damage, leaving hundreds of patients reliant on makeshift treatment centers.
At a monastery in Mandalay, where 270 monks were taking an exam when the earthquake struck, rescue workers reported that 50 had been found dead, 150 were still unaccounted for and 70 had managed to escape.
In neighboring Thailand, which also experienced significant tremors, the earthquake caused the collapse of a construction site in Bangkok, killing at least 12 people. Authorities have launched investigations into the collapse, while criticism of the government’s emergency response has prompted calls for improved public alert systems.
The earthquake has compounded an already dire humanitarian situation in Myanmar, which has been grappling with political instability and armed conflict since a military coup in 2021.
According to a United Nations representative, nearly 20 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance even before this disaster. The U.N. has issued a flash appeal for $8 million to support emergency operations in the country.
China, Russia, India, Thailand and Malaysia have dispatched aid and personnel, while local authorities and church partners are working to coordinate relief efforts.
Shipments of emergency supplies from Samaritan’s Purse, including water filtration systems, shelter materials, hygiene kits and flashlights, are expected in the coming days.
Meanwhile, an armed resistance movement against the military-led government criticized the junta on Sunday for carrying out airstrikes on villages despite the country’s ongoing struggle to recover from the earthquake.
The Karen National Union, one of Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armies, many of whose members are Christians, stated that the junta “continues to carry out airstrikes targeting civilian areas, even as the population suffers tremendously from the earthquake.”
