PORTAL RASMI
JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI
AGENSI PENGURUSAN BENCANA NEGARA
JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI
AGENSI PENGURUSAN BENCANA NEGARA
NEW DELHI: India's navy today delivered hundreds of tonnes of food aid to earthquake-hit Myanmar, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met reclusive junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.
India was among the first countries to rush aid and rescue teams to its war-torn neighbour after a devastating 7.7-magnitude quake on March 28.
The death toll from the earthquake has risen to more than 3,300, Myanmar state media said today.
More than one week after the disaster, desperate survivors remain without enough food and shelter.
The latest aid from India comprised 442 tonnes of food including rice, cooking oil, noodles and biscuits, the Indian embassy in Yangon said.
The consignment arrived via an Indian navy ship, INS Gharial, at Thilawa port.
Modi held a rare face-to-face meeting on Friday with Min Aung Hlaing on the sidelines of the Bangkok BIMSTEC meeting – the grouping of the seven nations on the Bay of Bengal.
"India is doing whatever is possible to assist our sisters and brothers of Myanmar in this critical time," Modi was quoted as saying in a government statement on Friday.
India's foreign ministry said that Modi told the junta chief that there was "no military solution to the conflict", and stressed the "importance of early restoration of a democratic process through inclusive and credible elections."
Min Aung Hlaing's armed forces have ruled Myanmar since a 2021 coup, when they wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a multi-sided conflict.
The junta leader had issued a rare appeal for international aid following the earthquake, indicating the severity of the crisis.
Previous military regimes in the country have shunned foreign assistance even after major natural disasters.
Sri Lanka also sent a medical team and a plane loaded with supplies, many funded by donations from Buddhist temples, to Myanmar, a defence official said.
Colombo has pledged more than US$1 million (RM4.4 million) to help quake victims in the fellow Buddhist nation. - AFP
BANGKOK (Reuters): The United Nations called for the world to rally behind quake-hit Myanmar on Saturday as the death toll rose to 3,354, while a former USAID official said a US aid team had received notice they were losing their jobs after arriving in the disaster zone.
In addition to those killed by the March 28 earthquake, 4,850 people were injured and another 220 are missing, state media said.
During a visit to Myanmar's second-biggest city, Mandalay, which was near the epicentre of the 7.7 magnitude quake, United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher appealed for international support.
"The destruction is staggering. Lives lost. Homes destroyed. Livelihoods shattered. But the resilience is incredible," he said in a post on X. "The world must rally behind the people of Myanmar."
Myanmar's neighbours, such as China, India and Southeast Asian nations, are among those that dispatched relief supplies and rescuers to aid the recovery effort in quake-hit areas that are home to about 28 million people over the past week.
The United States, which was until recently the world's top humanitarian donor, had pledged at least $9 million to Myanmar to support earthquake-affected communities, but current and former U.S. officials say the dismantling of its foreign aid program has affected its response.
Three U.S. Agency for International Development workers who had travelled to Myanmar after the quake were told they were being let go, Marcia Wong, a former senior USAID official, told Reuters.
"This team is working incredibly hard, focussed on getting humanitarian aid to those in need. To get news of your imminent termination - how can that not be demoralising?" said Wong.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday the junta was restricting aid supplies to quake-hit areas where communities did not back its rule.
The UN office also said it was investigating 53 reported attacks by the junta against opponents, including air strikes, of which 16 were after the ceasefire was declared on Wednesday.
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Free Burma Rangers, a relief group, told Reuters on Saturday that the military had dropped bombs in Karenni and southern Shan states on Thursday and Friday despite the ceasefire announcement, killing at least five people.
The victims included civilians, according to the group's founder, David Eubank, who said there had been at least seven such military attacks since the ceasefire.
ELECTION PLANS
The leader of the military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, reaffirmed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the junta's plans to hold "free and fair" elections in December when the two met in Bangkok, Myanmar state media said on Saturday.
Min Aung Hlaing made the rare trip to attend a summit of South and Southeast Asian nations on Friday, where he also met separately with the leaders of Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Modi called for the post-quake ceasefire in Myanmar's civil war to be made permanent, and said the elections needed to be "inclusive and credible", an Indian foreign affairs spokesperson said on Friday.
Critics have derided the planned election as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies.
Since overthrowing the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run Myanmar, leaving the economy and basic services, including healthcare, in tatters, a situation exacerbated by the earthquake.
The civil war that followed the coup has displaced more than 3 million people, with widespread food insecurity and more than a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, the U.N. says.
(Reporting by Poppy McPerson and Shoong Naing; Writing by John Mair; Editing by William Mallard, Aidan Lewis) - Reuters
NAY PYI TAW: Myanmar, which was hit by a devastating earthquake on March 28, has requested Asean member states, especially Malaysia, to send more medical teams and health facilities to the country for the recovery phase.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said the matter was among those raised by the chairman of the State Administrative Council (SAC), Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, during his meeting here today in conjunction with a one-day humanitarian mission to Myanmar following the earthquake.
"The search and rescue process is over. Now is the recovery phase. Myanmar needs a lot of international assistance… after this, Myanmar needs the assistance of medical teams, equipment and medical facilities such as operating rooms and medical specialists.
"This is because 74 of their hospitals are no longer usable because the buildings are not safe to use," he told Bernama before concluding his humanitarian mission visit to Myanmar.
The humanitarian mission was also led by his Thai counterpart, Maris Sangiampongsa. Mohamad and Maris also held a meeting with Myanmar's Foreign Minister U Than Shwe.
Mohamad said Malaysia's task after this is to find appropriate steps to send a medical team to Myanmar after the search and rescue phase of the operation is over.
"There is a request from Myanmar for Asean countries, especially Malaysia, to send a field hospital and I have just spoken to the director-general of the Malaysian Armed Forces medical corps, Gen. Datuk Seri Zulkefli Mat Jusoh (regarding the matter).
"How can we send a number of health teams because Myanmar needs many surgeons, operating rooms and medical volunteers because they (health teams) have to operate under tents," he said, describing the situation in Myanmar as quite critical.
Meanwhile, Mohamad said Aung Hlaing and Than Shwe also expressed their appreciation to Asean countries that were willing to lend a hand from various aspects, especially Malaysia, which was also described as one of the earliest countries to channel aid to Myanmar.
Mandalay, Bago, Magway, northeastern Shan state, Sagaing and Nay Pyi Taw in Myanmar were among the worst-affected areas, as well as affecting neighbouring Thailand.
The death toll from the earthquake has risen to 3,145, with 4,589 injured and 221 still missing, as of Friday. - Bernama
SINGAPORE: A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.7 centred in the Sagaing region near the Myanmar city of Mandalay caused extensive damage in that country and also shook neighbouring Thailand on Friday (March 28).
HOW VULNERABLE IS MYANMAR TO EARTHQUAKES?
Myanmar lies on the boundary between two tectonic plates and is one of the world's most seismically active countries, although large and destructive earthquakes have been relatively rare in the Sagaing region.
"The plate boundary between the India Plate and Eurasia Plate runs approximately north-south, cutting through the middle of the country," said Joanna Faure Walker, a professor and earthquake expert at University College London.
She said the plates move past each other horizontally at different speeds. While this causes "strike slip" quakes that are normally less powerful than those seen in "subduction zones" like Sumatra, where one plate slides under another, they can still reach magnitudes of 7 to 8.
WHY WAS FRIDAY'S QUAKE SO DAMAGING?
Sagaing has been hit by several quakes in recent years, with a 6.8 magnitude event causing at least 26 deaths and dozens of injuries in late 2012.
But Friday's event was "probably the biggest" to hit Myanmar's mainland in three quarters of a century, said Bill McGuire, another earthquake expert at UCL.
Roger Musson, honorary research fellow at the British Geological Survey, told Reuters that the shallow depth of the quake meant the damage would be more severe. The quake's epicentre was at a depth of just 10 km (6.2 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey.
"This is very damaging because it has occurred at a shallow depth, so the shockwaves are not dissipated as they go from the focus of the earthquake up to the surface. The buildings received the full force of the shaking."
"It's important not to be focused on epicentres because the seismic waves don't radiate out from the epicentre - they radiate out from the whole line of the fault," he added.
HOW PREPARED WAS MYANMAR?
The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program said on Friday that fatalities could be between 10,000 and 100,000 people, and the economic impact could be as high as 70% of Myanmar's GDP.
Musson said such forecasts are based on data from past earthquakes and on Myanmar's size, location and overall quake readiness.
The relative rarity of large seismic events in the Sagaing region - which is close to heavily populated Mandalay - means that infrastructure had not been built to withstand them. That means the damage could end up being far worse.
Musson said that the last major quake to hit the region was in 1956, and homes are unlikely to have been built to withstand seismic forces as powerful as those that hit on Friday.
"Most of the seismicity in Myanmar is further to the west whereas this is running down the centre of the country," he said.
NAYPYIDAW (Myanmar), 5 April: Menteri Luar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan mewakili Malaysia tiba di Myanmar, hari ini, bagi melaksanakan misi kemanusiaan ke Myanmar susulan gempa bumi dahsyat yang melanda negara itu pada 28 Mac lepas.
Pesawat yang membawa Mohamad serta delegasi selamat mendarat di Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Naypyidaw, di sini, kira-kira 9.30 pagi waktu tempatan.
Ketibaan beliau disambut oleh Timbalan Menteri Luar Myanmar Ko Ko Kyaw.
Sejurus tiba, Mohamad bersama dengan pasukan Pusat Penyelarasan Bantuan Kemanusiaan bagi Pengurusan Bencana ASEAN (AHA Centre) menyerahkan barangan Sistem Logistik Kecemasan Bencana ASEAN (DELSA) kepada Jabatan Pengurusan Bencana Myanmar.
DELSA merupakan inisiatif di bawah AHA Centre yang menyediakan sokongan logistik kecemasan kepada negara-negara anggota ASEAN yang terjejas akibat bencana.
DELSA membantu dalam penyimpanan awal dan penghantaran barangan bantuan seperti makanan, ubat-ubatan dan peralatan kecemasan dengan cepat dan berkesan apabila bencana berlaku.
Dalam lawatan itu, Mohamad dan rakan sejawatnya dari Thailand Maris Sangiampongsa yang turut mengetuai misi kemanusiaan itu akan mengadakan pertemuan dengan Pengerusi Majlis Pentadbiran Negara (SAC) Jeneral Kanan Min Aung Hlaing serta Menteri Luar Myanmar U Than Shwe di ibu kota Myanmar itu.
Misi kemanusiaan itu merupakan manifestasi solidariti serantau dan sokongan kepada rakyat Myanmar, sebagaimana dipersetujui dalam Mesyuarat Khas Tergempar Menteri-Menteri Luar ASEAN berhubung gempa bumi di Myanmar dan Thailand yang dipengerusikan Malaysia selaku Pengerusi ASEAN pada 30 Mac lepas secara sidang video.
Kementerian Luar yang lebih dikenali sebagai Wisma Putra dalam kenyataan semalam memaklumkan misi itu mencerminkan kesinambungan pendekatan ASEAN yang bersatu dan berteraskan rakyat dalam menangani krisis kemanusiaan serantau.
“Malaysia kekal komited untuk bekerjasama rapat dengan semua negara anggota ASEAN, Bantuan Kemanusiaan Pengurusan Bencana (AHA Centre) dan rakan-rakan kemanusiaan bagi menyokong usaha pemulihan dan pembinaan semula di Myanmar – terutamanya di wilayah Sagaing dan Mandalay yang paling teruk terjejas,” menurut Wisma Putra.
Pada 28 Mac lepas, gempa bumi berukuran 7.7 magnitud melanda Myanmar dengan Mandalay, Bago, Magway, timur laut negeri Shan, Sagaing dan Naypyidaw antara kawasan yang paling teruk terjejas selain turut menjejaskan negara jiran Thailand.
Setakat Jumaat, kematian akibat gempa bumi di Myanmar meningkat kepada 3,145 orang, dengan 4,589 cedera dan 221 lagi dilaporkan hilang. – TVS