By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA (Reuters) – The powerful earthquake that hit Myanmar on Friday damaged buildings and public infrastructure and there are concerns for the state of large dams, the Red Cross said on Friday.
Six states and regions are most impacted – particularly in the northwest of the country, the Red Cross said.
“Public infrastructure has been damaged, including roads, bridges and public buildings,” Marie Manrique, Program Coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross said to reporters in Geneva, via video link from Yangon.
“We currently have concerns for large-scale dams that people are watching to see the conditions of them,” she said.
“The bridge that connects Mandalay to Sagaing has collapsed – this will cause logistical issues. Sagaing has the largest number of internally displaced people in the country,” Manrique added.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since early 2021, when the military ousted an elected civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
A protest movement morphed into an armed rebellion against the junta across the country and the widening conflict has displaced over 3.5 million people.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Rachel More and Frances Kerry)
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