BBC:
The UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is launching an appeal to help the thousands of people injured and displaced as a result of last week’s powerful earthquake which struck Myanmar and the wider region.
Made up of 15 UK aid agencies, including the British Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children, the DEC is asking the British public for donations before the monsoon season arrives in two months.
More than 2,800 people have died and more than 4,500 have been injured, according to the leaders of Myanmar’s military government, with figures expected to rise.
The charities say shelter, medicine, food, water and cash support is “urgently needed”.
Baroness Chapman, minister for development, said public donations to the DEC appeal would be matched pound-for-pound by the government, up to the value of £5m.
DEC’s chief executive Saleh Saeed said the situation was “ever more critical.”
“Funds are urgently needed to help families access life-saving humanitarian aid following this catastrophe,” he said.
Multiple international aid agencies and foreign governments have dispatched personnel and supplies to quake-hit regions.
Myanmar was already facing a severe humanitarian crisis before the 7.7 magnitude earthquake due to the ongoing civil war there, with the DEC estimating a third of the population is in need of aid.
The country has been gripped by violence amid the conflict between the junta – which seized power in a 2021 coup – and ethnic militias and resistance forces across the country.
On Wednesday, Myanmar’s military government announced a temporary ceasefire lasting until 22 April, saying it was aimed at expediting relief and reconstruction efforts.
Rebel groups had already unilaterally declared a ceasefire to support relief efforts earlier this week, but the military had refused to do the same until Wednesday’s announcement.
Aid workers have come under attack in Myanmar. On Tuesday night, the army opened fire at a Chinese Red Cross convoy carrying earthquake relief supplies.
Nine of the charity’s vehicles came under attack. The UN and some charities have accused the military junta of blocking access.
