Relief efforts continue in Myanmar as international organizations rush to deliver basic supplies

Over 27-hundred people have been confirmed dead as of Tuesday due to the deadly earthquake that shook Myanmar last Friday.

Despite the 72-hour golden time being over now, relief efforts are still in full swing.

Our Bae Eun-ji tells us more.

Homes are destroyed and lives are lost in Myanmar after the country was hit by its largest earthquake in more than a century.

The death toll has already exceeded 2,700, despite the efforts of rescuers desperately searching for survivors.

International organizations are rushing to help, as residents in hardest-hit regions are in urgent need of shelter and essential items such as clean water, food, and hygiene kits.

The representative of the UN Refugee Agency in Myanmar, based in Yangon said the latest earthquake is a "crisis on top of a crisis," as the country already had more than three million people displaced from the ongoing armed conflict, even before the earthquake.

"This area particular area of north and central and northwestern part of Myanmar it was already the home of 1.6 million IDPs, internally displaced people. On top of that, we do think that the almost 15 million people have been affected by this earthquake, and among which 3.8 million which is quite a devastating number, 3.8 million people are considered to be living in the area that was hardest hit by the earthquake. So the impact you can imagine is quite enormous."

The Country director for Solidarites International, a France-based NGO, who's also in Yangon, said local responders are starting to get exhausted and that they're running out of resources.

He highlighted that the situation is at a "turning point," adding that efficient collaboration between local teams and international organizations is crucial, in order to gather all available resources.

"Mostly we are going to support local responders, when it comes to displacement sites for people that have been evacuating the city of Mandalay, because of fear of building continuing to collapse and being affected. We know already that quite a lot of people have now been spending three nights out in the streets with no shelter with no immediate protection."

With hospitals, schools, and public infrastructure now destroyed, there are concerns not only with regard to basic needs, but also health care and the educational system.

The Vice President of the International Rescue Committee said teams have been sent to a town near the epicenter of the earthquake, where 80% of the buildings have been compromised, and explained that the impact of an earthquake can last years.

"It's been heartening to see the response that's been mounted so far, but we know this is going to be an effort that's going to take not weeks but months, possibly years to fully recover from a crisis like this."

As the devastated country struggles to cope with the aftermath of the powerful earthquake, local communities are still awaiting international aid and support.

Bae Eun-ji, Arirang News.