Three days after Myanmar's worst earthquake, which lasted over a century, devastated the war-torn city, desolate monasteries and apartment buildings, help was still beginning to drip.
The city's 300,000 residents were largely left to dodge themselves after an earthquake struck by 7.7 magnitude, causing damage to the roads and urged authorities to close the bridge via safety concerns. The area is already deeply isolated and is being blocked from the internet by Myanmar forces, who have fought against rebels in the civil war.
By the end of Monday, some international aid groups had begun arriving in Saga. However, local volunteers trying to help with search and rescue efforts said they were being hampered by the military.
“We are not allowed to enter freely and provide support,” said U Tin Shwe, a Sagar resident who stood outside the military barricades of the fallen monastery. “Rescue operations can only be carried out with permission.”
The military government on Monday said tolls from the earthquake, which hit Myanmar's massive strips, including Sagar, and that saw the Mandalay and Nepidau cities surge from around 1,700 on Saturday to 2,056 to 2,056. Another 3,900 people were injured. Preliminary modeling from the US Geological Survey suggests that deaths could exceed 10,000.
Search and rescue teams flocked to the cities of Mandalay and Nepidau, home to the nation's generals. However, many in Myanmar have taken them to social media to appeal to foreign governments to redirect aid to Sagan, close to the Quake epicenter and whose residents say more than 80% of the town has been destroyed.
On Sagan on Monday, soldiers continued to monitor at checkpoints, but none of them were found to help search for survivors. With no space left at major hospitals in the city, people wrapped the dead in white cloth and placed them on concrete outside. Hundreds of residents were stuck on the streets, slept under powerless plastic waterproofing, and quickly ran out of food and water.
The disaster was so bad that it urged the military regime to call on international aid in rare cases. However, it is clear that such aid is only permitted on the terms of the junta itself. Since the earthquake, countless trucks carrying aid have been trapped overnight at military checkpoints around the city, according to the Ah Nyar Studies Center for Ah Nyar Studies, an independent nonprofit based in central Myanmar. Then on Monday, local media said trauma response teams from 50 Malaysia members joined Sagaing.
The Myanmar junta, led by Senior General Min Aung Frening, has fought against rebels for Sagar's control since it took power in a coup four years ago. A crude group of ordinary citizens who have adopted arms against the junta made it a hub for resistance, and the junta responded with a sustained campaign of airstrikes, beheadings and arson. Over the past year, rebel fighters trained from several Myanmar ethnic forces have made great profits against the military.
Dr. Wai Zan, who works at Sagaing General Hospital, says doctors belonging to the civil disobedience movement, made up of government workers who left their jobs after the coup, are being prevented from entering Sagan.
“The military is doing security checks everywhere, making it impossible for them to enter,” Dr. Wy Zan said.
The broader Sagan region in central Myanmar has around 5 million people in the city, but is home to the majority of the country's Bamar Buddhism. It lies between two rivers – Irrawaddy in the east and Chindwin in the west – serving as an important route for the transport of Army goods, people and military goods.
Even before the earthquake, Sagan was at the heart of many sufferings.
The region is bearing the brunt of domestic military airstrikes. It accounts for the largest number of internally displaced people in Myanmar, tallying over 1 million, according to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Coordination.
Even before the trembling, at least 27 townships in the Sagaing region already had no access to clean water and electricity, according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy, an independent research group. More than half of Myanmar's homes and buildings destroyed by the civil war were found in the area.
“There was really extreme violence. Beheading, dismantling, and violent displays of all sorts are aimed at threatening the population,” said Morgan Michaels, a researcher at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
The aftermath of the earthquake reminded me of the isolation of the city.
Wynn Mah said she was sitting outside the house when the earthquake struck. Her husband and her 16-year-old daughter died trapped inside, but it wasn't until Sunday that Mandalay volunteers managed to pull out their bodies.
“I've lost everything, my family and my home,” she said.
Due to the coup and weak phone signals, the internet is shut down, and residents were unable to tell the outside world what was happening. The city is overrun by soldiers and militias who closely monitor the arrival of people and the aid.
“Nothing has come to that point,” said Joe Freeman, a Myanmar researcher at Amnesty International. “We are primarily concerned that aid will be blocked by the military, as the military is their history and pattern.”
“Efforts are ineffective because we work together bare hands without the necessary equipment,” said Thant Zin, a volunteer trying to support Sagan.
“Many people trapped under the collapsed house are already dead,” he said. “What we need most now is to recover the body.”
It was difficult to get assistance to the city as the troops closed the main bridge between Mandalay and Sagar, and safety concerns resulted in another bridge, a British colonial bridge, collapsed after a trembling. Authorities reopened the main bridge on Sunday, but ordered rescue vehicles to appear at checkpoints.
No cars or trucks were able to pass through damaged roads. The World Food Program, which had been hoping to distribute food to 17,000 people in Sagan starting Monday, had to go by ferry.
According to Melissa Hein, director of communications for Myanmar's World Food Program, the agency plans to support one million people in conflict zones across the country in the coming weeks.
According to Trevor Clark, the agency's regional emergency advisor, a team from the UN Agency for Children arrived in Sagan Monday afternoon after a 13-hour drive from Yangon to Mandalay. He said so far, agency workers had not encountered any issues at checkpoints.
