UN urges aid to Myanmar quake survivors before monsoons hit, death toll climbs towards 3,000

(Reuters) -United Nations officials who surveyed earthquake damage in Myanmar urged the global community on Tuesday to ramp up aid before the looming monsoon season worsens already catastrophic conditions, with the death toll at 2,719 and expected to surpass 3,000.

Drinking water, hygiene, food, shelter and medicine are the most critical needs following extensive damage to buildings, roads and bridges, said Marcoluigi Corsi, acting humanitarian and resident coordinator following a two-day visit.

"We remain, of course, deeply committed to reaching people in Myanmar who need aid," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. "And we must act swiftly to provide relief before the upcoming monsoon season, which, of course, will even worsen this horrendous crisis."

A civil war in Myanmar had displaced more than 3 million people long before the quake struck. U.N. Special Envoy for Myanmar Julie Bishop urged all sides to immediately cease fire, permit humanitarian access and ensure aid workers are safe.

"Continuing military operations in disaster-affected areas risks further loss of life," she said in the statement.

Aid groups in Myanmar warned that the window to find survivors was closing fast.

Myanmar's military ruler Min Aung Hlaing said the death toll from Friday's 7.7 magnitude quake reached 2,719 as of Tuesday morning and was expected to surpass 3,000. Some 4,521 people were injured and 441 missing.

"Among the missing, most are assumed to be dead. There is a narrow chance for them to remain alive," he said in a speech.

The quake, which struck at lunchtime on Friday, was the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian country in more than a century. It toppled ancient pagodas and modern buildings alike and inflicted significant damage on Myanmar's second city Mandalay and Naypyitaw, the capital the previous junta purpose-built to be an impregnable fortress. 

U.N. agencies 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 a major rebel alliance declared a unilateral ceasefire to help relief efforts. 

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.

Myanmar's military has been accused of widespread atrocities against civilians as it fought to quell a multi-pronged rebellion after the coup. It has dismissed the accusations as misinformation and says it is protecting the country from terrorists. 

In neighbouring Thailand, the death toll from the quake rose to 21 on Tuesday, with hundreds of buildings damaged. Rescuers kept searching for life in the rubble of a collapsed skyscraper under construction in the capital Bangkok, but acknowledged time was against them. 

COMMUNITIES FLATTENED

The region has been hit by five more aftershocks. 

Julia Rees of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said she witnessed entire communities in Myanmar that had been flattened, with immense destruction and psychological trauma.

"And yet, this crisis is still unfolding. The tremors are continuing. Search and rescue operations are ongoing. Bodies are still being pulled from the rubble," she said in a statement. 

"Let me be clear: the needs are massive, and they are rising by the hour. The window for life-saving response is closing."

In the Mandalay area, 50 children and two teachers were killed when their preschool collapsed, the U.N. humanitarian agency said. 

In a rare survival story, a 63-year-old woman who was trapped for 91 hours was pulled from the rubble of a building in Naypyitaw on Tuesday in a joint rescue effort by the Myanmar fire department and teams from India, China and Russia.

Myanmar's civil war has complicated efforts to reach those injured and made homeless, including tight controls over the internet and communication networks.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance of three major rebel groups at war with the junta on Tuesday declared a unilateral one-month ceasefire, to allow urgent humanitarian efforts to "be carried out as swiftly and effectively as possible". 

In its nightly news bulletin on Tuesday, state-controlled MRTV quoted Min Aung Hlaing as saying the military had halted its offensives but unspecified ethnic minority armies were planning to exploit the disaster. 

"The military is aware they are gathering, training, and preparing to attack," it said, quoting the general as saying at an event to raise funds for quake victims. "We consider it as attacking us and will respond accordingly."  

SKYSCRAPER RUBBLE

One rebel group, the Karen National Union, on Sunday said the junta had conducted airstrikes in the east of the country at a time when it should be prioritising quake relief efforts.

Amnesty International said it had received testimony corroborating reports of air strikes near areas where quake recovery efforts were focused. 

“You cannot ask for aid with one hand and bomb with the other," said Amnesty's Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman. 

It was unclear if Min Aung Hlaing would make a rare foreign trip this week to attend a regional summit in Bangkok as planned. Thailand's on Tuesday said the general may attend by teleconference.

In Bangkok, rescuers were still seeking signs of life in the ruins of an unfinished skyscraper that collapsed, aware that four days after the quake, chances had dimmed of finding survivors.

Fourteen deaths have been confirmed at the site and seven elsewhere in the city. The government is investigating the collapse and initial tests showed some steel samples from the site were substandard.    

There were an estimated 70 bodies under the rubble and experts said 12 had been located using scanners, but access was blocked by large debris.  

"Maybe they can survive one week or two weeks, so we have to go on," Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said. “The experts still have hope."

(Reporting by Bangkok Bureau, Shoon Naing; additional reporting by Wa Lone in Toronto and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by John Mair and Martin Petty; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Ros Russell, Alison Williams and David Gregorio)