On Friday, March 29, the earthquake shook Burmacountry that lives an armed conflict between the army and rebel guerrillas.
The military government, which holds power from the 2021 coup d’etat, updated the figures in the Informative Bulletin of the 20.00 local time of the MRTV state radio and television chain, uploading the figure of more than a thousand dead who had communicated hours before.
The Board also announced, through MRTV, that more than 2,600 buildings have collapsed, including housing, schools and pagodas of the Buddhist majority, after an earthquake whose epicenter stood between the cities of Sagaing and Mandalay (about 17 kilometers from both), according to the United States Geological Service (USGS).
From Mandalay, the second largest city in Burma, with 1.5 million inhabitants, a local rescue group related to Efe the difficulty of the tasks and offered details about the devastating impact of the tremor.
“We take more people to the cemetery than to the hospital,” he said.
“Our teams,” he added, “are basically dedicated to taking out lifeless bodies from the debris (…) today only one of them has recovered 30 bodies.”
The Board warned this Saturday that the number of deaths can increase, with the state of emergency declared in six regions: Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway, Shan, Naipyidó and Bago.
The Sagaing region, where the epicenter took place, is one of the most important rebel fiefs, with guerrillas of ethnic minorities and the popular defense forces (PDF, for its acronym in English), formed mainly by young civilians after the assonated, gaining territory to the military in recent years.
The conflict between the army and the rebels, the cuts in the telecommunications and the damage to the infrastructure caused by the earthquake hinder the rescues and the distribution of aid.
The civil disobedience movement, emerged after a blow that ended a decade of democratic transition and demolished the country to international ostracism, alerted the isolation of rebel areas in its X account.
Isolation and bombing
“Sagaing is very affected, but people do not have access to the Internet. The Board cut access in many places in Sagaing and the Mandalay region, where resistance is strong,” he said.
“The situation in Mandalay is very hard. We do not know exactly the number of deaths, but welcomes many internal displaced people. There are many affected,” he added.
According to the UN, around 3.5 million people are displaced in Burma, where the army does not control much of the territory, with the country plunged into a spiral of economic crisis and conflict from the assonada, which worsens the situation.
The Military Board on Friday made an unusual request for international aid after declaring the state of emergency, with China, India and Russia among the former to be able to deliver it.
The UN reported on March 28 that it will mobilize, through its different agencies in Burma, US $ 5 million, while the European Union announced 2.5 million euros in help.
Several NGOs, such as World Vision, doctors without borders and international plan, are also mobilizing.
“We have heard that helping groups have arrived from Burma, but we have not seen any yet. For now we only see the Birmian organizations,” Mandalay’s rescuer told Efe.
The United Nations Rapporteur for Burma, Tom Andrews, warned that the General Min Conit Hlaing regime – on the one who weighs a request for arrest by the International Criminal Court (CPI) – uses military aid as a weapon, and asked the international community to channel it through the democratic opposition and rebel groups.
The Government of National Unity (NUG), formed after the coup and that the legitimate authority of Burma in semiclandestinity is declared, said that the army continues the bombings in rebel areas despite the natural tragedy.
Thus, he indicated that the bombings of the Burmese aviation yesterday and today include attacks in the Sagaing region and in the Shan state, both affected by the earthquake.
The earthquake was also felt in neighboring countries such as China, India and Thailand, in whose capital, Bangkok, a tower of office offices collapsed in which dozens of people trapped.