The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Tuesday geared up to deliver 70 tonnes of relief supplies to Myanmar after the death toll rose to over 2,700 from last week’s earthquake.
The 7.7 magnitude quake, which hit around lunchtime on Friday, was the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian country in more than a century, toppling ancient pagodas and modern buildings alike.
Aid groups in the worst-hit areas of Myanmar said there was an urgent need for shelter, food and water but said the country’s civil war could prevent help reaching those in need. The death toll had reached 2,719 and is expected to rise to more than 3,000, Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing said in a televised address today. He said 4,521 people were injured, and 441 were missing.
A statement issued today from the NDMA Pakistan was going to send 70 tonnes of relief supplies to Myanmar for the victims of the earthquake on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s directions.
“On the instructions of the prime minister, NDMA has started the process of sending relief supplies to the earthquake victims in Myanmar,” it said.
While speaking to the media after the dispatch ceremony of supplies, Federal Minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary said that the premier and the government stood with the people of Myanmar during the difficult time.
The federal minister also gave a special message of sympathy on behalf of the premier for the people of Myanmar.
The first batch of relief supplies, which would be 35 tonnes, includes approximately 565 tents, 210 tarpaulins, 2,000 blankets, a tonne of ready-to-eat food, 0.5 tonnes of medicines and 10 water purification modules.
The NDMA said that the first batch of relief supplies would leave today and land in the city of Yangon, while the second consignment would be dispatched soon.
The federal minister appreciated the NDMA for the prompt delivery of relief items on the prime minister’s instructions.
The statement added that the Myanmar ambassador thanked the government and people for the relief items.
PM Shehbaz spoke with his Myanmar counterpart Senior General Min Aung Hlaing a day ago and conveyed his condolences over the loss of lives and property due to the earthquake.
The premier assured the prime minister of Myanmar, who is also chairman of the State Administration Council, that Pakistan stood ready to provide any assistance to alleviate the suffering of those affected by the earthquake.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Thailand, rescuers pressed on searching for life in the rubble of a collapsed skyscraper in the capital Bangkok, but acknowledged time was against them.
In Myanmar’s Mandalay area, 50 children and two teachers were killed when their preschool collapsed, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
“In the hardest-hit areas … communities struggle to meet their basic needs, such as access to clean water and sanitation, while emergency teams work tirelessly to locate survivors and provide life-saving aid,” the UN body said in a report.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said shelter, food, water and medical help were all needed in places such as Mandalay, near the quake’s epicentre.
“Having lived through the terror of the earthquake, people now fear aftershocks and are sleeping outside on roads or in open fields,” an IRC worker in Mandalay said in a report.
The civil war in Myanmar, where the junta seized power in a coup in 2021, has complicated efforts to reach those injured and made homeless by the Southeast Asian nation’s biggest quake in a century.
