Bangkok, Mar 29 (EFE).- Rescue teams were working round the clock in Myanmar on Saturday while waiting for international aid to arrive following the devastating magnitude-7.7 earthquake that struck the center of the country, affecting areas already mired in armed conflict.
“Our team mainly carries out the removal of dead bodies (…) We have to take more people to the cemetery than to the hospital. Today, according to our team alone, there are more than 30 dead bodies,” said an aid organization worker in Mandalay region, among the hardest hit by the earthquake.
The military junta, which seized power in a 2021 coup, said Saturday that the total number of deaths has reached 1,644, with 3,408 injured, and 139 missing.
The aid worker, who did not want to be identified, told EFE that some 300 people from his organization were working in various areas of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city of around 1.5 million.
He added that the damage was enormous and that rescue organizations have mobilized people from other regions to help in the affected area.
More than 2,600 buildings, including homes, churches, schools, and pagodas have collapsed, said a brief statement from the military junta published through the national radio and television service (MRTV).
The quake struck on Friday at 12.50 pm local time (06:20 GMT) in Sagaing region, at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), with the epicenter halfway between the cities of Sagaing and Mandalay.
The junta has declared a state of emergency in six areas: Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway, Shan, Naypyitaw (where the capital of the same name is located), and Bago, areas where there is an active conflict between the army and various rebel groups, including ethnic minorities and pro-democracy groups that emerged after the coup.
The conflict, telecommunications outages and blockages, and damage to infrastructure caused by the earthquake were hampering rescue efforts and aid distribution.
“Children in Myanmar were already facing one of the world’s most complex crises,” said Trevor Clark, UNICEF’s regional emergency advisor for East Asia and Pacific, on Saturday. “The impact on children is going to be devastating.”
The military government on Friday issued a rare appeal for international aid, with China, India, and Russia among the first to end help.
The UN announced on Friday that it will mobilize $5 million through its various agencies operating in Myanmar to humanitarian work, while the European Union announced €2.5 million in aid.
Several NGOs, such as World Vision and Doctors Without Borders, are also mobilizing on the ground to assist earthquake victims.
“We have heard that international aid groups have arrived in Myanmar, but we have not seen any on the ground yet. We are only seeing the Myanmar fire brigade and our own Myanmar aid groups,” the aid worker from Mandalay told EFE. EFE
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