Civil society groups from Myanmar and across the region are calling on the international community to channel all humanitarian aid for earthquake relief via local community groups and frontline responders in collaboration with the National Unity Government (NUG), ethnic resistance groups, and civil society organizations (CSOs). It wants to keep all international aid out of the hands of the regime in Naypyidaw.

“Earlier this month, the [regime] had already shut down seven private hospitals in Mandalay following an accusation of their employment of healthcare professionals from the Civil Disobedience Movement, severely limiting healthcare capacity in Mandalay,” stated a joint press release by 265 civil society groups on March 30.

Mandalay was one of six regions, including neighbouring Sagaing, Bago, Magway, as well as Naypyidaw and Shan State, which were declared disaster zones after the earthquake on March 28.

The 265 civil society groups accuse the regime of “weaponizing” humanitarian aid in the two previous natural disasters, including the widespread floods caused by Typhoon Yagi in 2024 and Cyclone Mocha, which hit Arakan State in 2023.

In both instances international humanitarian aid deliveries were channeled via Naypyidaw and supposedly didn’t reach areas of the country under the control of resistance forces, which oppose the 2021 military coup.

“I certainly hope that the international community will be getting aid to the NUG, through the NUG, to CSOs, to networks that can get aid to where it needs to be. There’s no alternative. This is incredible devastation,” Tom Andrews, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told DVB.