The United States has yet to offer considerable help, with its answer lagging far behind China, Russia and India, which have rushed crisis teams and supplies to Myanmar after the devastating 7.7 scale earthquake.
Even as President Donald Trump continued dismantling the US agency for international development ( USAID), he assured that American help was on the way after the earthquake struck Myanmar’s densely populated central region on Friday, leaving more than 1, 700 dead. As per the region’s military authorities, the death toll is expected to rise further.
Despite Trump’s speech, the US comment has been delayed. A three-person USAID analysis team is hardly expected to arrive in Myanmar until Wednesday, sources familiar with the implementation work told the New York Times. People with experience in previous disaster relief expeditions said that the wait is strange and a dramatic contrast to previous US assistance responses.
Meanwhile, China has already deployed search-and-rescue teams to Mandalay, one of the worst-hit areas, and has pledged$ 14 million in aid.
On Sunday, the US embassy in Myanmar announced that the country would provide up to$ 2 million in humanitarian assistance, to be distributed through aid groups operating in the quake struck nation. However, some important techniques required to stream this aid had been severely disrupted by the catastrophe.
The condition has been further complicated by continued cuts within USAID. On Friday, as leaders in Washington worked to integrate a reply, some received agency-wide downsizing observes and were told to go home that evening, among whom were employees liaising with support missions in Bangkok and Manila.
Two of those affected had been preparing to relocate to Yangon and Bangkok this winter to serve as humanitarian assistance advisers at US missions in the region. Had those positions not been cut, they would have been on the ground, playing a crucial role in organising the U. S. relief effort.
Following the earthquake, the US embassy in Yangon sent an urgent cable to USAID headquarters in Washington to assess needs and initiate aid distribution. A day later, Tim Meisburger, a Trump administration political appointee at USAID, held a call with national security officials to discuss a response plan. However, Meisburger reportedly warned that, while assistance would be provided, expectations should be tempered.
No one should expect the agency’s capabilities to be what they were in the past, he said, according to a source with direct knowledge of the discussion.
