Sawt Falasteen - Scramble for food aid in Myanmar city near quake epicentre

Sagaing lies just 14 kilometres (8.6 miles) from the epicentre of Friday's deadly quake, which flattened buildings across the country and have so far resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths.

The city has suffered some of the worst damage, and unreliable infrastructure -- already run down by four years of civil war -- has complicated efforts to provide relief.

"I have no idea how to repair my house," Cho Cho Mar told AFP while waiting in a queue for aid.

The 35-year-old mother of three is bearing a heavy burden, as urgency and competition for relief supplies in Sagaing runs high.

"I am also worried for my mother," she said, carrying her young daughter and clutching packs of instant coffee and mosquito repellent.

AFP journalists saw hectic scenes as hundreds of desperate people lined up for aid distribution in the city, some running through traffic to join the queues.

A local volunteer rescue team toured damaged and destroyed houses, handing out envelopes of money worth around $12, donated by private citizens.

One team leader said he had around $2,400 in local currency to hand out -- not nearly sufficient to meet local needs.

Attention in the relief efforts is now shifting slowly from rescuing trapped victims to helping those displaced and left without basic amenities.

- Moments of hope -

Still, some late miraculous developments have occurred, with several trapped victims rescued from the rubble alive on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tin Maung Htwe was one such fortunate individual.

The 47-year-old school headmaster was saved Wednesday after being stuck on the bottom floor of a hotel when the earthquake last week caused it to collapse.

"I was waiting at the site when they were trying to dig him up," his sister, Nan Yone, told AFP.

"We didn't know if he would be alive," she said.

"I was relieved when I saw him today. Everyone who helped him was very capable.

"His will is very strong and I think that is why he survived."

Nan Yone said that they normally live in Sagaing region, but they moved elsewhere for the past three years -- "fleeing from the fighting", she said.

Myanmar has been entrenched in a brutal conflict since 2021, when a military junta wrested power from Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government, and Sagaing has witnessed some of the worst of the fighting.

Today, however, the rescue of Nan Yone's brother is cause for celebration.

"I can't describe it. I was dancing, crying and beating my chest because I was so happy," she said.

Elsewhere, earthquake victims in Sagaing took to the banks of the Irrawaddy River as the sun set, bathing and washing clothes in its languid current just downstream from a collapsed colonial-era bridge to Mandalay.

The loss of the Ava Bridge, built under British rule nearly a century ago, has likely further hampered efforts to deliver aid to Sagaing, where recovery appeared more hectic than in nearby Mandalay.

"We haven't got the food we need," Thin Thin Khaing told AFP while queuing for aid.

The 49-year-old woman said that her house was "cracked and leaning".

She added that what she needed wasn't much: "Just some medicine if possible, and some rice and oil."

F.AbuShamala--SF-PST