« We are very worried about the situation in Mandalay » – Liberation

The race against the clock accelerates for rescue operations in Burma. Faced with assessment which has dramatically increased in the space of a few hours, Going from 144 dead to more than 1,600 This Saturday, March 29, in the aftermath of the earthquake, the humanitarian community fears a significant increase in the number of victims. “If we believe the analysis of the American Geological Institute (USGS), there is a probability for this figure to reach 10,000 people. Given the configuration of the fault, the proximity of the cities of Mandalay, Naycyidaw and Sagaing, the shallow depth of the epicenter, the risk is real ”, explain Release This Saturday Quentin Rouveirolles, director of the NGO Solidarités International for Burma, from Rangoun, the largest city in the country.

For more than thirty hours, humanitarian aid has been mobilized with its Burmese partners and other international organizations to assess the extent of the damage and start coordinating aid. « We are very worried about the situation in Mandalay which totals 70 % of the victims for the moment, continues Quentin Rouveirolles, about the second city in the country, which has around 1.5 million inhabitants. A hundred buildings collapsed and many buildings, Monast