Children across earthquake-stricken Myanmar are at risk of dying due to insufficient aid, UNICEF’s Asia-Pacific advocacy chief told Reuters on Wednesday (April 2), Reuters reports.
United Nations agencies like UNICEF are urging the global community to ramp up aid as rescue and relief efforts rush to help those affected by Friday’s (March 28) deadly earthquake that has killed at least 2,719 people in the Southeast Asian nation.
“Yes, there's a risk of children dying, because we know that it's very likely that disease will proliferate, there will be disease in the earthquake affected areas. If we're not able to get enough clean water, enough medical supplies in there, there's a risk of malnutrition, increasing chronic and severe acute malnutrition among children can be very dangerous,” UNICEF’s Eliane Luthi told Reuters during an interview in Bangkok.
Luthi said she and her UNICEF colleagues believe that there are likely “hundreds of children” among the dead in earthquake-hit areas across Myanmar, many of whom before the earthquake hit were already in need of humanitarian assistance due to the ongoing civil war.
“So to superimpose an earthquake on top of that, it's really it's nothing short of devastating for children,” Luthi added.
The earthquake was the latest in a succession of blows for the impoverished country of 53 million people following a 2021 coup that returned the military to power and devastated the economy after a decade of development and tentative democracy.
U.N. agencies have said hospitals were overwhelmed and rescue efforts hindered by infrastructure damage and the civil war. Rebels have accused the military of conducting airstrikes even after the quake and on Tuesday (April 1) a major rebel alliance declared a unilateral ceasefire to help relief efforts.
Myanmar's civil war has complicated efforts to reach those injured and made homeless, including tight controls over the internet and communication networks.
