Humanitarian Coordinator (A.I) for Myanmar, Marcoluigi Corsi, Opening Remarks to Geneva-based Correspondents, from Yangon (1 April 2025)

*As delivered

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to brief you today on the situation in Myanmar. The scale and scope of the impact of the earthquakes—I am sure that you all have seen it—is vast and spans multiple states and regions, particularly the central part of the country, which is also called the dry zone.

We are still gathering information on the full extent of the impact, but initial reports indicate a huge number of people affected and significant structural damage. We came back just last night [from Nay Pyi Taw], and I can tell you that the damage is quite significant—from roads to bridges, hospitals, schools, and, of course, buildings where civilians are living.

The human toll is devastating and continues to increase.

We have millions of people living in the areas affected by the earthquakes and a high number of casualties that have been widely reported. There is an upward trend, with more than [1,700] people having died so far, over 3,400 people injured, and more than 200 people remaining missing. The search and rescue [efforts] are continuing, but we are now at 72 hours since the earthquake. This means that the number of casualties is expected to rise.

The immediate needs of the affected communities, as in any, I would say, earthquake, are becoming increasingly urgent: we have shelter, food, clean water, essential household items are all in short supply.
Some people in the affected areas spent the night in the open, and some of us as well, together with other humanitarian actors, because, you know, we have no electricity, we have no running water. This is summertime, and it is very hot. Homes have been damaged or destroyed. And, of course, there are aftershocks, and people are scared to go inside their homes.

Humanitarian organizations—UN agencies and partners—many of whom were in Myanmar already, are present in the area and are actively delivering supplies as we speak, while also conducting rapid response assessments to determine the full scale of the needs.

Some of these supplies include, food, drinking water—there is a huge need for drinking water—shelter, temporary shelter to accommodate people. Also to say that the medicines are very important. Those areas were already—and I am sure colleagues from WHO will speak about that—there was [an outbreak of] acute watery diarrhoea, with cases of cholera. We need to also think that the new monsoon season is coming.

So, we remain deeply committed to reaching people in Myanmar with aid. Humanitarian workers are mobilizing, alongside local front-line responders—the localization is really the way to go—coordinating efforts to deliver immediate life-saving assistance.

Teams of search and rescue experts are working to find people trapped in the rubble and the critical window for search, as I said, is really narrowing, because we are now 72 hours after the earthquake.

Myanmar, I should also say, was already facing an alarming humanitarian crisis. Since I have been here, apart from the ongoing conflict, there has been a cyclone, a very powerful cyclone that hit mostly the north and north-west of the of the country. Last year, it was just a few months ago actually, there was a massive flooding. Now we have, you know, the earthquake, but then the cholera as well.

So, and according to the HNRP [Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan] there are 19.9 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. And this was just before the earthquake. So, the compounding impact of the earthquake puts more and more lives at risk as the resilience of the people, each time that there is a shock goes down, and this limits, you know, the likelihood of their resilience to come up again. Millions of people have been forced to flee their homes, over 15 million are facing hunger and the civilians face increasing protection concerns.

This is time, to be honest, for the world to step up and support the people of Myanmar. We keep saying that, you know, Myanmar, does not rank very high among the different emergencies. And we are not saying that we are competing with other emergencies, but it is really a matter of putting the people of Myanmar in a higher attention of everybody because they deserve the attention of the world.

The humanitarian response in Myanmar has been chronically underfunded for years. Four months into the year right now, less than 5 per of the of the required US$1.1 billion of the Humanitarian Response Plan has been received.

So, with the earthquake exacerbating needs, urgent funding is crucial to saving lives.

The UN, I must say, the Central Emergency Response Fund has been quickly responding to the needs, allocating immediately $5 million towards the earthquake, which would be mostly used for shelter, protection and water and sanitation.

Thank you indeed for the for your attention, the opportunity and would be happy to take any questions during the Q&A.

Over to you.

For further information, please contact OCHA:
Christina Powell, + +95 9797 00 7866 | Signal: +34 644 39 3247 | powell4@un.org OCHA press releases are available at www.unocha.org or www.reliefweb.int.