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SEARCH TEAMS HAVE pulled more bodies from the ruins of buildings a week after a massive earthquake rocked Myanmar, killing more than 3,300 people.
The focus is now turning towards urgent humanitarian needs in a country that was already devastated by civil war.
United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who is also the emergency relief coordinator, arrived in Myanmar yesterday in a bid to spur action following the quake.
Ahead of his visit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the international community to immediately step up funding for quake victims “to match the scale of this crisis”, and he urged unimpeded access to reach those in need.
“The earthquake has supercharged the suffering with the monsoon season just around the corner,” he said on Thursday.
Now is the time to stand in solidarity with the long-suffering people of Myanmar.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 3, 2025
The @UN will keep pushing for peace & international solidarity to provide lifesaving support for those in need.https://t.co/b90oMV2KZy pic.twitter.com/i9Nbs47jVZ
Myanmar authorities said 3,354 people had been killed, with another 4,508 people injured and 220 missing.
Many international search and rescue teams remain on the scene, with eight medical crews from China, Thailand, Japan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Russia operating in Naypyitaw, according to Myanmar’s military-run government.
Another five teams from India, Russia, Laos and Nepal and Singapore are helping in the Mandalay region, while teams from Russia, Malaysia and the Asean bloc of nations were assisting in the Sagaing region.
The Trump administration has pledged two million dollars (€1.82 million) in emergency aid and sent a three-person team to assess how best to respond given drastic cuts to US foreign assistance.
Yesterday, five bodies were recovered from the rubble in the capital Naypyitaw and the second-largest city of Mandalay, near the epicentre of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake on 28 March, authorities said.
The last reported rescue came on Wednesday, some 125 hours after the quake struck, when a man was saved from the wreckage of a hotel in Mandalay.
Even before the earthquake, Myanmar was beset by political, human rights & humanitarian crises.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 3, 2025
The disaster has supercharged the suffering.
I appeal to the international community to immediately step up vitally needed funding.
I appeal for rapid, safe, sustained & unimpeded…
The quake also shook neighbouring Thailand, bringing down a high-rise under construction in Bangkok, where recovery work continued on Friday.
Overall, 22 people have been found dead and 35 injured in Bangkok, primarily from the construction site.
Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into a civil war.
The quake worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, with more than three million people displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.
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President of Peace supplying Israel Governments with the means to kill Gazans at will. War crime after war crime. Where are the Israelies and Jews who believe in peace, international law – the world is waiting for ye to stand up and be heard. STAND UP.
@Eoghan O Sullivan: Where are the protests against Hamas? STAND UP.
I wonder how long it’ll be before we get hit by an unprecedented natural event? We really are so lucky compared to other parts of the globe.
@Andrew Kenny: if its a 7r earthquake, every building in the country will be damaged or fall down. I’ll put my on the meteror strike a 25/1.
@P. V. Aglue: your what?
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