Myanmar marks month of misery since historic quake
The magnitude-7.7 tremor was the strongest with an epicentre on Myanmar's land mass since 1912. PHOTO: AFP
Yangon - Myanmar marked one month since suffering its fiercest earthquake in more than a century on April 28, with military bombardments unabated despite a humanitarian truce as thousands of survivors camp in makeshift shelters.
The magnitude-7.7 tremor was the strongest with an epicentre on Myanmar's land mass since 1912, the United States Geological Survey reported, killing nearly 3,800 according to an official toll still rising daily.
Devastation centred on the second most populous city of Mandalay where apartments, tea shops, hotels and religious institutes were razed or heavily damaged.
'It's been a month but we are still very busy trying to get back what we lost,' said one Mandalay resident who asked to remain anonymous.
'I am not the only one still in difficulty, it's everyone around me as well.'
With tens of thousands people still homeless as monsoon season approaches, aid agencies are warning of major challenges to come.
'People are extremely concerned about what will happen in the next few weeks,' the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Myanmar chief Nadia Khoury told AFP.
Meanwhile she said the organisation was planning a two-year relief plan because 'the geographical magnitude of this earthquake has been absolutely huge'.
Air strikes go on
The military – which sparked a civil war by snatching power in a 2021 coup – declared a ceasefire to spur relief efforts starting on April 2.
But since then monitors from the Britain-based Centre for Information Resilience have logged 65 air attacks by the junta.
A strike on April 23 killed five people and wounded eight more in a village on the outskirts of the town of Tabayin, residents told AFP, 100km northwest of the earthquake's epicentre.
'I managed to hide immediately after I heard explosions but my elder sister couldn't,' said 40-year-old Ko Aung.
'She ran randomly in a panic during the strike and a piece of shrapnel hit her head. She died on the spot.'
Ms Cho Tint, 46, said she sheltered in a cow shed as a fighter jet dropped two bombs.
'The military announced a ceasefire for the quake but they broke it already and are still attacking civilians,' she said. 'That's them crossing the line.'
A man works among the debris at the collapsed market in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on April 24.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
In eastern Myanmar residents also said they were forced from their homes in an offensive by opposition armed groups attempting to seize towns on a lucrative trade route to Thailand during the truce, due to last until April 30.
After four years of war, half the population were already living in poverty and 3.5 million were displaced before the quake, which sheared the ground up to 6m in places according to Nasa analysis.
Ms Khoury said some of the badly-hit regions already had a high level of humanitarian need because they were hosting people displaced by fighting.
'Now it's become even higher with this earthquake,' she said.
Ahead of the tremor the nation of more than 50 million was also bracing for the impact of international aid cuts following US President Donald Trump's campaign to slash Washington's humanitarian budget.
The World Food Programme had said it would cut off one million from vital food aid starting in April as a result of 'critical funding shortfalls'. AFP
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


AsiaOne
34 minutes ago
- AsiaOne
Israel commits 'extermination' in Gaza by killing in schools, UN experts say
VIENNA — UN experts said in a report on Tuesday (June 10) that Israel committed the crime against humanity of "extermination" by killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites in Gaza, part of a "concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life." The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel was due to present the report to Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council on June 17. "We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza," former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who chairs the commission, said in a statement. "Israel's targeting of the educational, cultural and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm the present generations and generations to come, hindering their right to self-determination," she added. The commission examined attacks on educational facilities and religious and cultural sites to assess if international law was breached. Israel disengaged from the Human Rights Council in February, alleging it was biased. When the commission's last report in March found Israel carried out "genocidal acts" against Palestinians by systematically destroying women's healthcare facilities during the conflict in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the findings were biased and antisemitic. In its latest report, the commission said Israel had destroyed more than 90 per cent of the school and university buildings and more than half of all religious and cultural sites in Gaza. "Israeli forces committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing, in their attacks on educational facilities... In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination," it said. The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in a surprise attack in October 2023, and took 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Harm done to the Palestinian education system was not confined to Gaza, the report found, citing increased Israeli military operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as harassment of students and settler attacks there. "Israeli authorities have also targeted Israeli and Palestinian educational personnel and students inside Israel who expressed concern or solidarity with the civilian population in Gaza, resulting in their harassment, dismissal or suspension and in some cases humiliating arrests and detention," it said. "Israeli authorities have particularly targeted female educators and students, intending to deter women and girls from activism in public places," the commission added. [[nid:718908]]

Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Israel commits 'extermination' in Gaza by killing in schools, UN experts say
FILE PHOTO: Palestinians inspect the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, in Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, May 12, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo Israel commits 'extermination' in Gaza by killing in schools, UN experts say VIENNA - U.N. experts said in a report on Tuesday that Israel committed the crime against humanity of "extermination" by killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites in Gaza, part of a "concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life." The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel was due to present the report to Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council on June 17. "We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza," former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who chairs the commission, said in a statement. "Israel's targeting of the educational, cultural and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm the present generations and generations to come, hindering their right to self-determination," she added. The commission examined attacks on educational facilities and religious and cultural sites to assess if international law was breached. Israel disengaged from the Human Rights Council in February, alleging it was biased. When the commission's last report in March found Israel carried out "genocidal acts" against Palestinians by systematically destroying women's healthcare facilities during the conflict in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the findings were biased and antisemitic. In its latest report, the commission said Israel had destroyed more than 90% of the school and university buildings and more than half of all religious and cultural sites in Gaza. "Israeli forces committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing, in their attacks on educational facilities ... In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination," it said. The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in a surprise attack in October 2023, and took 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Harm done to the Palestinian education system was not confined to Gaza, the report found, citing increased Israeli military operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as harassment of students and settler attacks there. "Israeli authorities have also targeted Israeli and Palestinian educational personnel and students inside Israel who expressed concern or solidarity with the civilian population in Gaza, resulting in their harassment, dismissal or suspension and in some cases humiliating arrests and detention," it said. "Israeli authorities have particularly targeted female educators and students, intending to deter women and girls from activism in public places," the commission added. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Oceans protection treaty could take effect from January, Macron says
The treaty requires 60 countries to ratify it, and so far, 55 have done so already, with another 30 due to be completed. PHOTO: AFP NICE - The international treaty on the high seas, which focuses on conservation and sustainable use of maritime areas beyond national jurisdictions, has received sufficient support to take effect early in 2026, French President Emmanuel Macron said on June 9. Speaking at the third United Nations (UN) Ocean Conference in Nice, Mr Macron said 55 countries' ratifications of the treaty have been completed, around 15 are in progress with a definite date, and another 15 will be completed by the end of the year, meaning that the required 60 ratifications will be achieved. 'This means that this treaty will be able to enter into force on January 1 of next year, which means we would finally have an international framework to regulate and administer the high seas,' Mr Macron said at the closing of the first day of the conference, which is being held for the first time in Nice. The High Seas Treaty, adopted in 2023, would permit countries to establish marine parks in international waters, which cover nearly two-thirds of the ocean and are largely unregulated. Hitherto, only an estimated 1 per cent of international waters, known as the 'high seas', have been protected. The treaty comes into force once 60 countries ratify it. Once the 60th ratification is deposited, the treaty will enter into force after 120 days, setting the stage for the first-ever legally binding global framework to protect marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, according to the which tracks the number of signatures. At the end of May, after the European Union and six EU member states deposited their ratification at the UN, the number stood at 28. At the opening of the conference in Nice on June 9, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged world leaders to ratify the treaty. Mr Guterres cautioned that illegal fishing, plastic pollution and rising sea temperatures threatened delicate ecosystems and the people who depend on them. 'The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it,' Mr Guterres said, citing collapsing fish stocks, rising sea levels and ocean acidification. Oceans also provide a vital buffer against climate change, by absorbing around 30 per cent of planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions. But as the oceans heat up, hotter waters are destroying marine ecosystems and threatening the oceans' ability to absorb carbon dioxide. The drive for nations to turn years of promises into meaningful protection for the oceans comes as President Donald Trump pulls the US out of climate projects and as some European governments weaken green commitments as they seek to support anaemic economies and fend off nationalists. The US has not yet ratified the treaty and will not do so during the conference, Ms Rebecca Hubbard, director of The High Seas Alliance, said. 'If they don't ratify, they are not bound by it,' she said. 'The implementation will take years but it is critical we start now and we won't let the US absence stop that from happening.' Ocean experts have also seized on the conference as an opportunity to rally investment for the ocean economy, which has long struggled to attract sizeable funding commitments. At a two-day gathering of bankers and investors in Monaco over the weekend, philanthropists, private investors and public banks committed 8.7 billion euros (S$12.8 billion) over five years to support a regenerative and sustainable blue economy. Investments in ocean health totalled just US$10 billion (S$12.9 billion) from 2015 to 2019 - far below the US$175 billion per year needed, the UN has said. To address this gap, the UN said on June 8 that it was starting work to design a new financing facility, to be launched in 2028, which aims to unlock billions of dollars to restore ocean health by mobilising new and diverse sources of capital. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.