In Burma, 200,000 people displaced by the earthquake are still waiting for help from the junta
Nearly 200,000 people were displaced by the March 28 earthquake. They are camping in makeshift shelters, threatened by severe weather and epidemics. These precarious living conditions are likely to persist, as the military continues to be reluctant to provide assistance.
Min Lwin Oo is still alive because he was absent from Friday prayers at his village mosque on March 28. That was the day a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar.
“I was working at the Sagaing market,” said the 41-year-old, a resident of Bone Oh, about fifteen kilometers from Mandalay, the large city near the epicenter of the disaster that left more than 3,650 dead and some 4,500 injured. “I was able to escape quickly, and that’s why I survived.”
His younger brother Win Lwin, two of his uncles, and a cousin were less fortunate. They were among the 138 Bone Oh residents who lost their lives, most of them when the mosques where they had come to pray collapsed. “I lost a lot of acquaintances, family members too. It's a tragedy,” Min Lwin Oo said.
A month has passed since the earthquake, the most powerful to hit the region in decades. For survivors, the situation has barely improved. International aid has arrived, but the junta's relief efforts remain limited in many affected areas.
Routes to reach Mandalay, a city of more than a million inhabitants
Courrier International
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