The US has sent a three-person team to Myanmar to help respond to the 7.7-magnitude earthquake, in a move criticised as “weak and irrelevant” by a former aid official.
Much larger Russian and Chinese teams have already been helping search-and-rescue efforts in the country for days.
The scaled-back response comes as President Donald Trump is moving to officially end the US Agency For International Development (USAID) and has notified remaining employees their jobs will be eliminated.
The Department of Government Efficiency is thought to have already cut billions of dollars from USAID, but the exact figure has not been verified.
Any remaining functions are set to be transferred to the Department of State.
“It’s not a case of worst-practice; it’s really a case of no-practice,” former USAID disaster relief leader Jeremy Konyndyk told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“It just makes the US look, frankly, kind of weak and irrelevant to most of the other countries that have shown up in force to support the people of Myanmar,” added Konyndyk, now the president of Refugees International.
The US team’s expected arrival on Wednesday comes five days after the earthquake devastated large swathes of Myanmar’s biggest cities on Friday.
The US embassy in Burma said in an online statement that the team would be deployed “to identify the people’s most pressing needs, including emergency shelter, food, medical needs, and access to water.”
Konyndyk previously warned the first five days was the key period for finding people alive.
“The US has missed that window, and the cost of that is lost lives of people who could have been saved in Myanmar,” he said.
The earthquake has killed at least 2,800 people, with thousands more injured. The death toll is predicted to surpass 10,000, according to US Geological Survey modeling.
Residents are feared to be trapped under collapsed buildings across the country, including dozens under the collapse of a high-rise building that was under construction.
Myanmar’s ruling military rejected a major rebel alliance’s Tuesday proposal for a unilateral ceasefire to support the international response to the earthquake.
The United Nations has urged the international community to step up aid before the upcoming monsoon season worsens the disaster.
The US embassy in Burma pledged up to $2 million in aid through Myanmar-based humanitarian organizations.
“The United States stands with the people of Myanmar as they work to recover from the devastation. We offer our deepest condolences for the loss of life and infrastructure in this difficult time,” it said on a statement online.
By comparison, a senior international studies lecturer told ABC that the United States contributed 225 USAID workers and $185 million to Turkey and Syria after the 2023 earthquake.
“The Trump administration’s paltry efforts in this regard are an insult to the people of Myanmar,” Adam Simpson of the University of South Australia said.
China sent about 200 people, including a team, the day after the earthquake and pledged $13.9 million to Myanmar.
Two Russian aircraft carrying 60 rescue workers, four dogs, ambulances, and rescue vehicles arrived in the capital on Sunday.
The Philippines said it was deploying 114 specialists, while Vietnam sent 100, Singapore 88, and Thailand 55.
India, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Taiwan have all also provided emergency support in the form of aid or rescue specialists.