MYANMAR (SE): Rescuers continued to dig through the rubble of collapsed buildings on March 29 in a desperate search for survivors after a huge 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand on March 28, killing more than 150 people, UCAN reported.
More than 2,700 people had died as of April 2, and more than 4,521 were injured, according to media reports. The figures are expected to rise. In Thailand, at least 18 lost their lives and some 100 were missing.
In his Angelus text on March 30, Pope Francis prayed for Myanmar “which is also suffering so much because of the earthquake,” Vatican News reported.
Charles Maung Cardinal Bo, the archbishop of Yangon and head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar made an appeal on March 29 urgently calling “ for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire by all parties involved in the conflict [civil war] to ensure the safe and unimpeded delivery of essential humanitarian aid by local and international supporters.”
The epicentre was northwest of the city of Sagaing, 20 kilometres south of Mandalay, followed by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock minutes later, according to the United States Geological Survey.
We ask for your prayers for the communities and countries affected by the powerful earthquake, as we continue to assess the full extent of the damage
Benedict Alo D’Rozario
Benedict Alo D’Rozario, president of Caritas Asia, appealed for prayers and solidarity for communities affected by the powerful quake.
“We ask for your prayers for the communities and countries affected by the powerful earthquake, as we continue to assess the full extent of the damage,” said D’Rozario, according to LiCAS News.
The big tremor also affected Thailand causing the collapse of an under-construction 30-storey government office building under construction in Bangkok, killing at three workers killed and some 81 trapped beneath the rubble UCAN reported.
In Myanmar, hospitals and roads were severely damaged and entire structures collapsed. Mandalay’s 1,000 bed hospital was evacuated.
According to UCAN, one Mynamese NGO worker, speaking from Myawaddy, near the Thai border said, “I’m getting a lot of news out of Myanmar, and Mandalay has been badly damaged. Buildings collapsed, so we’re very worried that a lot of people may have been killed or injured.”
She said, “One monastery has imploded, and skyscrapers have been slammed down to the ground from the highest of levels. There must be people buried alive in there. It’s horrible.”
D’Rozario said that Caritas Asia would coordinate closely with Caritas member organisations in the affected countries to assess the situation on the ground and determine the immediate needs, as well as the scale of support that Church-based humanitarian groups can mobilise in response to the disaster, LiCAS News reported.
One monastery has imploded, and skyscrapers have been slammed down to the ground from the highest of levels. There must be people buried alive in there. It’s horrible
In Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, rows of wounded people lay outside the emergency department of the 1,000-bed hospital, some writhing in pain, others motionless and covered in dust and blood.
“This is a mass casualty area,” a hospital official said, as journalists were asked to vacate the treatment zone. The emergency department itself was heavily damaged, its concrete entrance collapsing onto a car, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.
“Many injured people have been arriving, I haven’t seen anything like this before,” a doctor at the hospital said. “We are trying to handle the situation. I’m so exhausted.”
Four years of civil war have ravaged the country’s healthcare and emergency response systems, UCAN reported.
Junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid, indicating the severity of the calamity. Previous military regimes have shunned foreign assistance even after major natural disasters.
The country declared a state of emergency across the six worst-affected regions after the quake, and at one major hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw, medics were forced to treat the wounded in the open air.
Myanmar, which sits atop the seismically active Sagaing Fault, has experienced strong earthquakes in the past, but the March 28 tremor is one of the most devastating in recent decades, reviving concerns over preparedness and resilience in urban and rural communities.
India, France and the European Union offered to provide assistance, while the WHO said it was mobilising to prepare trauma injury supplies, UCAN reported.
One Myanmese student in Hong Kong expressed relief that his family was safe. He told the South China Morning Post that many Myanmese in Hong Kong were deeply anxious and fearful as communication blackouts would prolong the time it took to connect with family members.
