The Myanmar earth

The country’s military leaders said on Saturday that the official death of the earthquake, which was crashed in central Myanmar, exceeded 1,600 people.

On Friday, the strong earthquake near Mandalay, the second largest city in the country, and volunteer emergency workers there was combed with the ruins of apartments, monasteries and mosques in search of anyone who has alive. The earthquake’s earthquake was dropped and caused the roads to be burst. The workers were lacking in equipment such as the excavators and their amplifier, while the repressive military authorities had maintained their eyes.

“There is still at least a hundred people trapped at home,” said Tho Zain, a volunteer who was sitting in front of devastating buildings. “We are doing our best to what we have.”

The death toll is expected to rise sharply, although the Military Council in Myanmar, which toppled an elected government in 2021, has sought to restrict the information that leaves the country. The United States’s geological survey was suggested that the number of deaths is likely Over 10,000.

The earthquake raised questions about whether the military rulers were in Myanmar You can be able to stay in powerAfter I have already lost the land in front of the rebels in the middle of A. The bloody civil war This has left nearly 20 million from about 54 million people in the country without enough food or shelter even before the earthquake, according to United Nations officials.

Even after the catastrophe hit, the military aircraft in Myanmar shot down the bombs on Friday evening in a village controlled by the rebels, Naung Lin, in the northern state of Shan. “I cannot believe that they had at the same time with the earthquake,” said Lua Yal Ou, a resident of Nounges Lin.

The anger against the army was rising in the wake of the disaster on Saturday. Mr. Zin, a volunteer in Mandalay, said that the soldiers and police officers came to disaster sites but did nothing to help. He said: “Here they are hanging in their rifles.” “We do not need weapons, we need the help of gentle hands and hearts.”

But JUNTA also acknowledged the huge extent of the catastrophe, which caused the collapse of a building 600 miles in Bangkok and sent shock waves across Southeast Asia. The military government declared a state of emergency in six areas of Myanmar, including rebel -controlled areas where millions of displaced people live with rare internet.

Government media showed that the army leader, senior General Min Aung Hang, polls disaster sites on Friday and visited a temporary hospital in Naybito, about 170 miles south of Mandalay.

Although the Military Council, although it is isolated and sanctions from most of the world, also made an unusual call for assistance – an invitation that some began to answer despite the amazing logistics Obstacle In obtaining this aid for the survivors.

Relief workers will have to pass the collapsed roads and destroyed areas, in a country Discounts on the full civil war and the competitors of the competing warArms dealers, human trafficking and drug nucleus. Experts said that there are risks that the army can interfere in handing over aid, and even transferring money to Myanmar is complicated by the rules that involve sanctions and money.

The Foreign Minister said that India, which is shared by the long borders with Myanmar, sent 15 tons of aid and more than 100 medical specialists, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he spoke to the head of the Military Council, where he provided assistance in a “close friend and a neighbor.”

China, which also borders Myanmar and that provided JUNTA weapons even with evidence of its military atrocities, has flew dozens of search and rescue workers to the country on Saturday. Beijing also planned to send nearly $ 14 million of aid, including tents, first aid and drinking water, according to Chinese government media.

South Korea promised $ 2 million of aid, and shipped it through international humanitarian agencies, and the Malaysia government said it would send two teams of 50 people to support relief work.

But he remained far from the type of response that some of the richer countries in the world will provide, or how. Although President Trump said the United States “will help”, his administration has it He moved to everyone, but the judiciary The main US agency for the distribution of aid, the United States, Britain and other countries imposed severe sanctions on the military council.

Even for the most friendly countries to the military rulers in Myanmar, there are great obstacles. Early delivery operations went to the help that India and China sent to the largest city in Myanmar, Yangon. They will have to drive hundreds of miles north to reach Mandalay and other areas most affected by the earthquake.

In the disaster area, where the roads were damaged and destroyed, and people went largely, people tried to store fuel and food. Dozens of other cities in Myanmar also mobilized their cars and trucks with supplies and went to Mandalai, hoping to enter.

Ambulances broke out the Mandalay streets on Saturday, heading to the hospital two hours away they had more space. Among the piles of bricks, cement and minerals where the buildings had stood two days ago, some people began to lose hope.

“Yesterday we found some survivors, but today the opportunities are much lower,” said Ko Thin Wayne, who rushed to the site of a devastating residential building in Mandalay.

In hospitals, many others were left in a type of antiseptic, dealing with their injuries and fear of the fate of their loved ones. Tai visited Lin choosing the mango when the land began to shake on Friday and fell, and broke his leg. He arrived at the hospital, where he could not see the doctor until Saturday morning.

Then he discovered that his wife was still besieged inside the Khayat store, where she worked. He said: “I pray to God that yesterday morning was not the last time I saw it.”

Understanding outside Myanmar has spread to the diaspora from the people who immigrated from the country in the past decades. Richard Ni, one of the tens of thousands who now live in Taiwan, said that he and other former residents of Mandalay were waiting for a word from friends and family. He knew that the wife of one friend had died, apparently in the collapse of the building, but intermittent communication made it difficult to know more.

He said he was an engineer, who said that many buildings in Myanmar, which are located on one of the most seismic areas in the world, were built to endure earthquakes. He said: “Many buildings were strong enough to earthquake 6 to some extent.” “But anything is higher than 6, such as this time, it was too much.”

Many survivors of the earthquake actually know the fate of their loved ones.

When she hit the earthquake and began her apartment in Mandalay, she was finished, Sin Lyn, with six months, managed to escape the building with her husband and protect her. But she said that her husband ran inside to save his 90 -year -old neighbor. Then the building collapsed, killing them.

“I cannot put the words I feel,” she said crying in the hospital. “My child will be born without a father.”

David Pearson Hong Kong reports contributed to the reports, Mujib Mashal From New Delhi, Shui Sang Hoon and Sean Pike From Seoul, Chris Bacli From Taiwan, Jenny Gross From London and Hana Beach From Boston.