As Myanmar battles Covid-19 surge, calls arise for urgent aid that is not co-opted by junta
- An Asean parliamentarians group and the ICRC are among those discussing how best to provide aid to Myanmar as it battles a deadly spike in cases
- An expert said the junta is ‘weaponising Covid-19’ by suffocating the protest movement, fuelling the disaster and corrupting the international response
But in undertaking this outreach, governments should insist that independent aid workers deliver the aid directly on the ground and prevent the ruling junta from co-opting the aid effort, they added.
Meanwhile, the politically neutral and independent International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) separately told This Week in Asia it was working with the local Red Cross and Red Crescent to deliver Covid-19 aid, with these efforts also integrated into existing operations, including in the conflict-riven Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states.
The various discussions on how best to provide aid to Myanmar come amid reports of the grim state of the pandemic in the country of 54 million people, with indications the virus is wreaking havoc as treatment becomes scarce and vaccines unavailable.
Official data put the daily caseload at around 6,000 with an average of 230 deaths a day, but observers say drastic underreporting by the junta is likely at play. It recorded more than 6,000 new cases on Thursday.
The Myanmar Now portal on Wednesday said the virus was now also rampant in the armed forces, with members of the junta such as police chief Lieutenant General Than Hlaing infected and convalescing in hospital.