1 day ago
14
A man has been pulled alive from the ruins of a hotel in the capital, Naypyidaw, days after the magnitude 7.7 quake.
Published On 2 Apr 2025
The death toll from last week’s earthquake in Myanmar has risen to 2,886, according to state television, as rescue efforts continue amid an ongoing civil war.
MRTV said 4,639 people were injured and 373 were missing, according to data as of Wednesday morning.
In neighbouring Thailand, the death toll from the quake rose to 22, with hundreds of buildings damaged and 72 people missing.
China’s Xinhua news agency reported that the Chinese embassy in Myanmar delivered cash assistance worth 1.5 million yuan ($206,685) to the local Red Cross to help with relief efforts.
The announcement came as the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the media that its rescue team and supplies were safe after Myanmar’s military government said its troops fired warning shots in the presence of a Chinese Red Cross aid convoy on Tuesday.
Guo Jiakun, a ministry spokesperson, said at a news conference that Beijing hoped “all factions and parties in Myanmar will prioritise earthquake relief efforts, ensuring the safety of rescue personnel and supplies from China and other countries”.
“It’s necessary to keep transportation routes for relief efforts open and unobstructed,” Guo said.
Myanmar and Chinese rescuers carry the body of a victim who was trapped under the rubble of the collapsed Sky Villa condominium in Mandalay [File: Sai Aung Main/AFP]Military government spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said the Chinese Red Cross had not informed authorities it was in a conflict zone on Tuesday night, and a security team fired shots in the air after the convoy, which included local vehicles, failed to stop.
The military has struggled to run Myanmar following its coup against the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, reducing the economy and basic services, including healthcare, to tatters after civil war broke out.
The United Nations said more than 28 million people in the six regions were affected by the earthquake and that it put in place $12m in emergency funding for food, shelter, water, sanitation, mental health support and other services.
As hopes of finding more survivors were fading on Wednesday, a man was pulled alive from the ruins of a hotel in the capital, Naypyidaw, five days after the magnitude 7.7 quake.
The rural parts of the hard-hit Sagaing region, mostly under the control of armed resistance groups fighting the military government, are among the most challenging for aid agencies to reach.
Human Rights Watch urged the military government to allow unfettered access for humanitarian aid and lift curbs impeding aid agencies, saying donors should channel aid through independent groups rather than only the authorities.
“Myanmar’s junta cannot be trusted to respond to a disaster of this scale,” Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a report. “Concerned governments and international agencies need to press the junta to allow full and immediate access to survivors, wherever they are.”
Source
:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
