SAO PAULO, SP (Folhapress)-To help search for survivors of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Myanmar on Friday (28), the Military Junta that rules the country in Southeast Asia allowed the entry of foreign rescuers on Saturday (29). The tremor was one of the largest to reach the nation in the last century, leaving 1,644 dead, according to the latest balance of the authorities.
United States Geological Service estimates that the number of victims in Myanmar may exceed 10,000. The agency also states that the financial cost of this catastrophe can be tens of billions of dollars.
Without suitable equipment and machinery for rescue, disaster survivors in Mandalay – the second largest city in the country and the hardest hit by being close to the Sagaing region, the epicenter of the shakes with their own hands to try to save people who are still trapped under the rubble.
Myanmarenses heard by the news agency Reuters claim that the response in the city has not been enough in the face of the destruction caused by the earthquake. The reports are that there are still many people arrested, but there is no help on the way simply because there is no labor, equipment or vehicles.
In Mandalay, Htet Min OO, 25, was rescued by residents under a wall holding half of his body. He tried to save his grandmother and two uncles from the wreckage of a building, but could not move the concrete blocks. “I don’t know if they are still alive. After so long, I don’t think there is hope. There are a lot of rubble, and no rescue team has come to help us.”
When the tremor hit Myanmar, he was in a mosque and made the purifications that preceded the prayers made by the Muslims, who since the beginning of March celebrate the sacred month of Ramadan. Parts of the mosque and his house, which was next door, collapsed during the shake. The wall that hit Htet also arrested his two aunts, and only one survived.
More than 50 mosques suffered damage, according to the Government of National Unit of the opposition of Myanmar, and hundreds of Muslims are among the dead. The earthquake happened as these faithful gathered for Friday’s prayers.
Without listing mosques in the damage report, the military junta states that 670 monasteries and 290 Buddhist temples, a predominant religion in the country, were hit. In recent years, governments, ultranationalist groups and extremist monks have incited violence and repressed the Islamic minority.
Myanmar has been in political crisis since 2021, when the army has given a coup and deposed the elected civil government stating that there was fraud in the elections. Humanitarian agencies assess that the tremor occurred at a time of high vulnerability for the country, which lives in the context of widespread violence and has the health system overloaded by outbreaks of cholera and other diseases.
“The additional stress of meeting the needs of those who have been injured in the earthquake will cause unprecedented tension in already scarce resources,” said Mohammed Riyas, director of the International Rescue Committee in Myanmar.
In January, the UN diagnosed in Mianmar a multiple crisis, marked by economic collapse, intensified conflict, climate risks and increasing poverty. More than half of the country has no access to electricity, and hospitals in conflict zones are not operating.
On Friday, the head of the Board who rules Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing, asked “any country, any organization” to help with help efforts. This is a rare request, as the military administration is isolated and, on previous occasions, has refused foreign support even after major natural disasters.
In Rangoon, the country’s commercial capital, a Chinese rescue team landed at the airport and will travel by bus to the interior, according to state media. Hygiene supplies, blankets and foods sent by India have also arrived at a military aircraft, and planes are expected with the help of Russia, Malaysia and Singapore.
South Korea said it will provide an initial humanitarian aid of $ 2 million through international organizations. China’s leader Xi Jinping said Beijing will refer the equivalent of $ 13.77 million (R $ 79.4 million), including tents, blankets and emergency medical kits. The US, who have a tense relationship with the Myanmarense Board, said they will offer some assistance.
The UN warned on Saturday that there is a serious shortage of medical supplies, and stressed that the most necessary items are trauma kits (for treating serious injuries), blood bags, anesthetic products and some essential medicines.
Airports (including international nayphitaw and mandalay), bridges and highways are paralyzed. An initial assessment of the Government of the National Opposition Unit of Myanmar, which brings together remnants of the civil government deposed by the military in the 2021 coup, estimates that at least 2,900 buildings, 30 roads and seven bridges were damaged by the earthquake.
Damage on roads make it difficult to access hospitals, and institutions in the center and northwest of the country struggle to deal with the number of people injured, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
In BancoCo, Thailand, where nine people died, a rescue operation uses excavators, drones and search dogs to find 47 missing where a 33 -story tower under construction has collapsed. Up to 5,000 structures, including residential buildings, may have been damaged in the capital, according to Anek Siripanichgorn, member of the board of the Thailand Engineers Council.
Khin Aung, a myianmarense worker who worked on the Thai work, says he left the place minutes before the collapse. But his brother, like many friends, is still under the rubble of the skyscraper, which would be destined for government offices. The two worked in Bancoc six months ago.
“It all happened in the blink of an eye. I made a video girdle to my brother and friends, but only one answered. I couldn’t see his face and heard that he was running. At that moment, the whole building trembled, but I was still on connection with him. The call fell and the building collapsed,” he says. Waiting for news, workers’ relatives gathered around the wreckage on Saturday.
