Earthquake devastates fishermen's stilt houses on Inle Lake
Some rural areas have been as badly affected as cities. Almost 100 people have reportedly died and 3,000 homes destroyed in a well-known tourist destination. Residents were already hard at work recovering from the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi in September 2024. While the main ethnic militias have joined a ceasefire proposal, many fear the military junta will hold up aid.
Yangon (AsiaNews) – At least 2,790 houses have collapsed in the 19 villages on Inle Lake, Shan State, with almost 100 deaths reported so far, from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar on Friday.
“We’re now staying at monasteries, schools, and makeshift huts on floating islands,” a local resident told Democratic Voice of Burma, who added that phone links have not yet been re-established while drinking water is in short supply.
Residents are surviving thanks to the food offered by people in nearby villages who were spared the worse of the earthquake.
Other than the cities of Sagaing, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Daw, Inle Lake is one of the rural areas that have suffered the most damage and where it will be hard to deliver aid.
Before the outbreak of civil war in 2021, the lake, less than 40 kilometres south of the city of Taunggyi, was a well-known tourist destination, with hundreds of stilt houses along the lakeshore.
The People's Defence Forces (PDFs), the main resistance movement, took the area in July, which is home to ethnic Intha, who depend on the lake for their livelihood with fishermen using conical fish nets, one leg wrapped around a single oar to manoeuvre their canoes.
In recent years, several natural disasters have been the lake. After a period of drought, typhoon Yagi swamped the villages in September 2024.
“We suffered from floods last year in Inle. We’ve yet to recover from it before the earthquake came,” an aid worker said. At least eight people died in the floods and 6,000 were displaced, while the lake’s biosphere, which is a UNESCO reserve, was disrupted causing an environmental crisis.
The military junta reported that the death toll exceeded 2,000, with almost 4,000 wounded, but the numbers are impossible to verify, due to a foreign media blackout, while many local journalists have been forced to flee following the 2021 military coup that sparked the ongoing civil war.
For the US Geological Survey, at least 10,000 people died in the quake, while residents in Sagaing, near the epicentre, claim that 80 per cent of the city was destroyed.
Some reports indicate that up to 10,000 buildings collapsed in Nay Pyi Daw, the capital. The few Myanmar journalists who manage to find information from inside the country report chilling incidents.
“A Mandalay resident says regime soldiers seized all backhoes from her ward at gunpoint, leaving no equipment to rescue children trapped under rubble,” wrote Yan Naing Aung on X.
The only groups active in bringing aid to the population seem to be small local groups. NGOs and civil society organisations that continue to operate in Myanmar even during the civil war report that humanitarian aid sent through the military junta is not reaching its destination.
This is nothing new. After Typhoon Yagi in September 2024, but also after cyclone Mocha, which devastated the western state of Rakhine in June 2023, the junta withheld aid in an attempt to blackmail the population and gain advantages against ethnic militias who had taken territory over the past year, especially along the border areas with other countries, while the military maintains control over some large cities in central Myanmar.
Although the earthquake struck on Friday, some rescue teams from Malaysia were able to reach the Sagaing Region only yesterday. The military and rebel forces are still vying for control of the area.
Over the past year, the junta continued to carry out air strikes in this region and neighbouring Mandalay region, even after the earthquake struck.
Today, the three ethnic militias that had launched an offensive called "Operation 1027" in late 2023 have agreed to the ceasefire proposal made by the exiled National Unity Government to facilitate rescue operations.
To respond to the humanitarian emergency, the PIME Foundation has decided to launch a fundraiser for Myanmar to help the dioceses of Taungoo and Taunggyi aid the displaced. We will send aid to them, starting with the basic needs of people, like shelter, food, and schooling for children.
To make a donation for Emergency Aid for Myanmar (10122) click here.
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11/05/2023 13:51
