Aid organizations Myanmar will come in – and three more questions about the earthquake

A country that already suffers under a bloody civil war was hit by a very powerful earthquake on Friday. The provision of information from the affected areas Myanmar is limited, because the military regime prefers to keep the shutters closed.

What is known so far? Four questions about a disaster where at least 1,600 people died and who also hit neighboring Thailand.

1
What do we know about the earthquake itself?

An earthquake of 7.7 on the Richter scale hit Myanmar on Friday morning around half past seven, a country with 58 million inhabitants. The epicenter was located north of the city of Mandalay, with around 1.7 million inhabitants the second largest city in the Southeast Asian country (after the former capital Yangon). The quake was felt to the neighboring countries Thailand, Laos, Bangladesh, India and China. A powerful after -shock of 6.4 on the Richter scale followed twelve minutes after the main shock.

The area, writes the KNMI, Located on the border of two tectonic plates, the Eurasian and Indian plate. Myanmar therefore has experience with heavy earthquakes, and also with other natural disasters: Cyclone Nargis killed more than one hundred thousand people in the country in 2008.

2
What is known about the damage and about the victims?

It is difficult to get a picture of the situation in Myanmar. Myanmar is ruled by a military junta, who is not waiting for a lot of viewers.

The official death toll, reported by the Junta, was 1,644 on Saturday afternoon. 3,408 would have been injured. There would also be 139 people missing. It is expected that the number of victims will increase even further. According to estimates from the American Geological Institute (USGS), the death toll can exceed 10,000.

The provision of information is mainly limited because the regime has restricted freedom of the press (Myanmar is in 171 of the 180, on a ranking of the organization Reporters Without Borders). Foreign press agencies such as AP and Reuters who report across the country often work from Thailand. Journalists from the French news agency AFP are present in Myanmar. They describe that hundreds of people are buried under the rubble of dozens of collapsed buildings.

« On the corner of a street, the bell tower of a monastery has collapsed on one side. The broken hands indicate 12.55 hours, a few minutes after the fatal earthquake, » says a report from AFP from Mandalay. « Further on, according to a Red Cross officer, more than ninety people would be stuck under the rubble of an apartment building. The top six floors are supporting what remains of the lower six floors (…) The arm of a woman and what her emerge from the rubble, » said the report.

Visual material comes out slowly. On (Moving) images They have been verified by NRCcan be seen, among other things, that the Sagaing bridge, over the Irrawaddy River, has collapsed.

« Infrastructure such as roads, bridges and buildings were damaged, which led to victims and injuries among civilians, » says the Junta in a statement in the state media.

On satellite images AP saw that the air traffic tower of the airport of Nypyitaw, the capital of the country, has collapsed. The electricity supply is seriously disturbed in Mandalay and Yangon.

At least six people died in neighboring Thailand and 26 people were injured in three construction sites. On one of them, in the capital Bangkok, a partially built skyscraper collapsed. Ten people died, 42 were injured and 78 people are missing, the Thai authorities reported Saturday.

3
What is the political and social situation in Myanmar?

The disaster affects Myanmar while the situation is already very worrying: the population suffers from a repressive military regime, which is involved in a bloody battle with a number of opposition groups. There is poverty and a lack of care, food and clean water.

In February 2021, the army set the government in 2015 democratically and re -elected government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi. For example, a situation of military administration that the country had known in most years since it became independent of the United Kingdom in 1948.

A civil war rages from the 2021 military coup. The Junta commits serious war crimes, investigators from the United Nations concluded several times. According to this Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), the Myanmar soldiers are guilty of bombing of civilians and executions of prisoners.

In large parts of Myanmar, however, the military regime has been driven out and the service is the servic by various opposition groups – often consisting of ethnic minorities, which are treated as second -class citizens in the country. « The fighting is becoming more serious now that the opposition to military administration is increasing, » said Nicholas Koumjian, IIMM director, last month. Also in the Sangaing region, where the epicenter of the earthquake was, there is often fierce fighting.

« Four years after the takeover of power by the army, citizens in Myanmar are fighting to survive an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, » said a recent report from the United Nations. Around 20 million people (of the approximately 54 million inhabitants) need humanitarian aid. At least 15 million people suffer from an acute lack of food.

Since the earthquake, the military regime has continued bombing, the BBC reports on the basis of reports from opposition groups, also in areas close to the Epicentrum of the quake. The regime uses aircraft of Russian and Chinese origin. Russia and China are the most important international allies of the Junta.

Thomas Andrews, UN REPORTEUR FOR HUMANMAR in Myanmar, pointed out on Friday that the Junta foreign help with earlier disasters used « as weapons » by blocking help to rebel area, and called on the international community in assistance with the opposition.

4
What kind of emergency aid do countries and organizations offer?

The leader of the Junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, asked « Elke Land » for help and donations on Friday. It signs the severity of the disaster: Normally the Junta rather keeps foreign help out.

The first international help arrived in Myanmar on Saturday, when a Chinese rescue team arrived. According to press agencies, China said he had sent 135 rescue workers. Russia, the other great ally of the Junta, says he has 120 rescue workers on the spot. India and Malaysia also say they have also sent dozens of experts. The US has also offered help, but this is at odds with the dismantling by the Trump government of development organization USAID.

South Korea and New Zealand have said they will provide help through private organizations, such as the Red Cross. Little is known about help from Europe, except that the European Commission has said to support care providers through European Copernicus satellites and says to ‘ready’ to help in other ways.

Several private emergency aid organizations try to provide assistance in the affected areas. Some places – even those where the help is most needed – are difficult to reach due to the civil war.

« Tomorrow, exploratory teams of Doctors Without Borders will be moving in Myanmar to see what the damage is, » says a press officer of the organization on the phone. « The epicenter of the quake, in the middle of the country, is an area where we cannot go. It is currently discussing whether our people are allowed to do that. »

Conflict areas such as Sagaing have been ‘hermetically sealed’ by the regime in the last four years, says the spokesperson. « After such an earthquake, it is essential for the first 72 hours that surgical, trauma and wound care are offered and that there are relief supplies such as blankets and building materials. We cannot give that help there at the moment. We are hard at work to create an opening, because we really need the regime on a large scale. »

The Red Cross seems to have more access to areas such as Sagaing. There are 585 employees and about six thousand volunteers from the Red Cross in Myanmar, says a spokesperson. « Mobile teams have been drawn to the affected areas. In Sagaing there are volunteers who support people – think of distributing food, drinks and medical packages and the transport of wounded to hospitals. Priority has the saving of people who are still under the rubble. » The local Red Cross HEft warned That land mines and other unplaced explosives may have been moved by the earthquake.

Aid organization Save the Children has released resources from the Children’s Nood Fund and says it is urgently to work on a aid operation. « We are going to offer emergency aid in the form of food, water and shelter. Also think of distributing cash and vouchers. »

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