The death toll from the Myanmar earthquake exceeded 2,000, and the Saga dance that helped the war was very slow.

Myanmar’s worst earthquake in more than a century hit Sagan, the distant war-torn city, razed monastery and apartment buildings three days after its help was still dripping in.

After a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that destroyed roads and prompted authorities to close safety issues, the city’s 300,000 residents were largely knocked down. The area has been deeply isolated, cut off from the internet by the Myanmar military, which has been fighting rebels in the civil war.

By late Monday, some international aid groups began to arrive in Sagan. But local volunteers seeking help with the search and rescue work said they were blocked by the military.

“We are not allowed to enter freely and provide assistance,” said U Tin Shwe, a resident of Sagaing, who stood outside a military obstacle in a overthrown monastery, where monks remained trapped under debris. “The rescue operation can only be carried out if permitted.”

The junta said Monday that losses from the earthquake soared to 2,056 in large swaths of Myanmar, including Sagaing, and Mandalay and Naypyidaw cities, up from about 1,700 on Saturday. Another 3,900 people were injured. Preliminary modeling by the U.S. Geological Survey shows that death tolls may exceed 10,000.

Search and answer teams flocked to the country’s general’s hometown of Mandalay and the cities of Naypyidaw. But many in Myanmar have invited social media to beg for redirecting aid to Sagaing, which is close to the epicenter of the earthquake, where residents say more than 80% of the town have been destroyed.

During Monday’s Sagaing, soldiers kept surveillance at checkpoints but saw no help in finding survivors. The city’s main hospitals have no space, and people wrap the dead in white cloth and place them on concrete outside. Hundreds of residents were trapped in the streets, sleeping under unpowered plastic tarpaulins, and food and water were quickly exhausted.

The disaster was so bad that it prompted the junta’s rare call for international aid. But it is obvious that this kind of aid can only be allowed on the government’s own terms. According to the AH NYAR Research Center, an independent nonprofit organization located in central Myanmar, countless trucks carrying aid have been trapped in military checkpoints in the city since the earthquake. Then on Monday, a 50-member trauma response team from Malaysia entered Sagaing, the first foreign rescue team to do so.

Myanmar’s military regime, led by senior Min Aung Hlaing, has been fighting rebels to control Sagaing since the coup four years ago. The armed ordinary civic groups against the junta made it a stronghold of resistance, and the junta responded with ongoing air strikes, beheadings and arson. Rebel fighter jets trained from some ethnic armies in Myanmar have made huge gains for the military over the past year.

According to Dr. Wai Zan, who works at Sagaing General Hospital, a doctor belonging to the civil disobedience movement, consists of government staff who have left their work after the government work.

“The military conducts security checks everywhere, making them inaccessible,” Dr. Wai Zan said.

The wider Sagan area in central Myanmar, including about 5 million people in the city, is home to the country’s BAMAR Buddhist majority. It is located between two rivers – between Irrawaddy in the east and Chindwin in the west, an important route for the army to transport goods, people and military supplies.

Even before the earthquake, Sagaing was at the center of pain.

The region is the first to bear the brunt of the country. According to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, it is the largest number of internally displaced people in Myanmar, with more than one million people.

Even before the earthquake, at least 27 townships in the Sagan area had no access to clean water and electricity, according to the Institute of Strategic and Policy, the independent research group. The Civil War destroyed more than half of Myanmar’s houses and buildings in the area.

“There are real extreme violence: beheading, dismemberment and different kinds of violent manifestations aimed at intimidating the population,” said Morgan Michaels, a researcher at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

The consequences of the earthquake reminded the city of isolation.

Wimmar said she sat outside the house when the earthquake hit, “completely collapsed, and bricks fell one by one.” Her husband and 16-year-old daughter were trapped inside and died, but until Sunday, volunteers in Mandalay managed to pull their bodies out.

“I lost everything, my family and my home,” she said.

Since the coup and weak telephone signals, Saga residents were unable to tell the outside world what was going on because the internet had been cut off. The city was overwhelmed by soldiers and militias who closely monitored the arrival and assistance of people.

“Nothing really got there,” said Joe Freeman, a Burmese researcher at Amnesty International. “We are primarily concerned that aid is blocked by the military because it is their history and pattern.”

“The aid efforts are ineffective because we have bare hands, but there is no necessary equipment,” said Thant Zin, a volunteer at Sagaing.

“Many people trapped under the collapsed houses have died,” he said. “Now, what we need most is to recover the body.”

Providing aid to the city was challenging as the military closed the main bridge, which, after security issues, collapsed after an earthquake after a British colonial bridge. Authorities reopened the main bridge on Sunday but directed rescue vehicles entering Saga.

Cars and trucks have been unable to drive along damaged roads. The program will begin distributing food to 17,000 people starting Monday, and starting Monday, the program will begin distributing food to 17,000 people.

Melissa Hein, head of communications at the World Food Programme in Myanmar, said the agency plans to help 1 million people in conflict areas across the country in the coming weeks.

Trevor Clark, the agency’s regional emergency adviser, said a UNICEF team from the United Nations Children’s Agency arrived in Sagaing Monday afternoon after a 13-hour drive from Yangon to Mandalay. He said that so far, workers at the agency have not had any trouble at the checkpoint.