The United Nations warned Friday that Myanmar‘s humanitarian crisis could worsen, stating that over 3.5 million people have been displaced by armed conflict, an increase of 1.5 million from the previous year.
Conflicts between the army and other ethnic rebel groups have rocked Myanmar since the military took control in a coup in 2021.
For autonomy and control of profitable natural resources, such groups have fought the military ever since independence.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA stated in a statement that the fighting has extended from the borderlands to most parts of the country, “forcing record numbers of people to flee their homes in search of safety and meeting their basic needs.”
According to OCHA, as of December 16, “it is estimated that over 3.5 million people—more than six per cent of the total population of 57 million—across Myanmar are now displaced, with approximately one-third of them being children.”
“Compared to one year ago, this represents a startling increase of almost 1.5 million internally displaced persons.”
“Intense fighting involving air strikes, drone attacks, artillery shelling, raids, and arbitrary arrests” characterised the latter days of 2024, according to the agency.
Regarding “an unprecedented humanitarian crisis fuelled by escalating conflict, disasters, epidemics, widespread explosive ordnance and land mine contamination, and economic collapse,” it referred to the scenario for 2025 as “grim.”
OCHA cautioned that if these patterns continue, the humanitarian situation will worsen much worse, leaving millions of people in dire need of aid.
According to UN estimates, almost one-third of Myanmar’s population, or 19.9 million people, would require humanitarian assistance by 2025.
OCHA has issued a funding appeal for $1.1 billion to provide “life-saving assistance” to 5.5 million people by 2025; however, these pleas are consistently underfunded.
