THE country marked one month since suffering its fiercest earthquake in more than a century, with military bombardments unabated despite a humanitarian truce as thousands of survivors camp in makeshift shelters.
The magnitude-7.7 tremor was the strongest with an epicentre on Myanmar’s land mass since 1912, the United States Geological Survey reported, killing nearly 3,800 according to an official toll still rising daily.
Devastation centred on the second most populous city of Mandalay where apartments, tea shops, hotels and religious institutes were razed or heavily damaged.
“It’s been a month but we are still very busy trying to get back what we lost,” said one Mandalay resident yesterday, who asked to remain anonymous.
“I am not the only one still in difficulty, it’s everyone around me as well.”
With tens of thousands people still homeless as monsoon season nears, aid agencies are warning of major challenges to come.
“People are extremely concerned about what will happen in the next few weeks,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Myanmar chief Nadia Khoury said.
Meanwhile, she said the organisation was planning a two-year relief plan because “the geographical magnitude of this earthquake has been absolutely huge”.
The military – which sparked a civil war by snatching power in a 2021 coup – declared a ceasefire to spur relief efforts starting on April 2.
But since then, monitors from the Britain-based Centre for Information Resilience have logged 65 air attacks by the junta.
A strike last Wednesday killed five people and wounded eight in a village on the outskirts of the town of Tabayin, residents said.
“I managed to hide after I heard explosions but my elder sister couldn’t,” said Ko Aung, 40.
“She ran randomly in a panic and a piece of shrapnel hit her head. She died on the spot.”
Cho Tint, 46, said she sheltered in a cow shed as a fighter jet dropped two bombs.
“The military announced a ceasefire for the quake but they broke it already and are still attacking civilians,” she said.
“That’s them crossing the line.” — AFP
