The United Nations and its humanitarian partners on Friday launched the 2025 humanitarian appeal for Myanmar, seeking $1.1 billion to reach 5.5 million people with life-saving assistance over the next year. With 12 out of 15 regions impacted by armed conflict, Myanmar faces one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, as 19.9 million people - nearly a third of them children - will need some form of relief aid in 2025.
In 2024, Myanmar has seen armed groups unite and expand rapidly across the country, while the Southeast Asian nation has also been hit by extreme flooding and other climate-related disasters. More than three years after a military takeover in 2021, the humanitarian situation is dire, with more than a third of the country's 57 million people now estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance.
Despite these enormous needs, the humanitarian emergency remains one of the most neglected in the world. Children are bearing the brunt of the humanitarian crisis, with 6.3 million children in need as a result of displacement, disruption to healthcare and education, food insecurity and malnutrition, as well as protection risks such as forced recruitment.
As conflict is ongoing in large parts of the country, people are forced to flee their homes in record numbers. According to the UN, nearly 3.5 million people are internally displaced nationwide, nearly half of whom have been displaced more than once. More than 1.1 million refugees are now hosted in neighboring countries.
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), Myanmar is the second most conflict-ridden country in the world in 2024. It is also ranked as the third deadliest and fourth most dangerous country for civilians, with 43 percent of the population exposed to conflict.
On Wednesday, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) published its annual Emergency Watchlist, highlighting the 20 countries most likely to face escalating humanitarian needs in the coming year. Myanmar ranked third on the dire list of countries of particular concern.
UN Secretary-General AntĆ³nio Guterres is deeply concerned by reports of escalating violence in Myanmar, including in Rakhine State, his spokesperson said in New York on Thursday. According to the spokesman, indiscriminate aerial bombardments causing civilian casualties continue to be reported in many parts of the country, resulting in further civilian suffering and displacement.
Guterres reiterated his calls on all parties to the conflict in Myanmar to end the violence and reminded all of their obligations under international law to protect civilians. He also appealed to all parties to avoid further incitement of intercommunal tensions.
In Rakhine State, Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority is facing another wave of deadly violence, seven years after a military-led campaign in 2017 forced hundreds of thousands to flee to Bangladesh. This time, however, the perpetrators are said to be the Arakan Army (AA), one of several ethnic armed groups fighting the country's ruling junta, as well as Myanmar's security forces.
Many thousands of Rohingya have been driven from their homes as intense fighting between junta forces and the Arakan Army has engulfed Rakhine State. Most are without adequate food, shelter or medicine. Tens of thousands have crossed or are waiting to cross the border into Bangladesh in recent months.
In Rakhine State, the conflict between the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) and the Arakan Army has continued since November 2023 and now affects 16 out of 17 townships in the state, bringing the total number of people currently displaced in Rakhine State to an estimated 570,000.
Rohingya in Myanmar are enduring the worst violence against their communities since 2017. In that year, more than 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh following mass atrocities by Myanmar's security forces in Rakhine State. They joined hundreds of thousands of other Rohingya who had previously sought refuge in the country.
On November 27, 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for Myanmar's acting president, General Min Aung Hlaing, for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya committed in 2017.
The Prosecutor's Office alleges that the crimes against humanity were committed between August 25, 2017, and December 31, 2017, by the MAF, also known as the Tatmadaw, āsupported by the national police, the border guard police, as well as non-Rohingya civiliansā.
Meanwhile, the conflict between the Myanmar Armed Forces and various non-state armed groups has directly affected 12 out of 15 regions and states following the military takeover in February 2021. A new wave of fighting was unleashed in October 2023 when the Three Brotherhood Alliance launched a coordinated offensive against the military and its allies, known as "Operation 1027".
More than 13 months later, the intensity of fighting has continued to escalate across Myanmar, with civilians bearing the brunt of the increasing scale of violence. Humanitarian needs have skyrocketed. More than 15 million people face acute food insecurity. Education and health services have been severely disrupted. The health system is in disarray and essential medicines are running out. Millions are without safe shelter or drinking water.
Severe underfunding and humanitarian access barriers left millions of people without assistance in 2024. In the first three quarters of 2024, humanitarian workers reached only 3 million people in need with some form of assistance. As of today, the $994 million 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) is only 34 percent funded, with $341 million received.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), even those who were reached often did not receive the assistance they needed. The UN is urging the international community to ramp up support for Myanmar in the coming year to prevent the crisis from deteriorating further.
OCHA reports that Myanmar's humanitarian crisis is fueled by widespread conflict, epidemics, contamination from explosive ordnance and landmines, and economic collapse. Security is deteriorating, protection risks are high, and people's resilience is stretched to the breaking point.
Myanmar is also one of the world's three most vulnerable countries to extreme weather, facing severe climate shocks such as cyclones and floods. Extensive flooding in July and September 2024 - driven by the remnants of Typhoon Yagi and monsoon rains - affected more than 1 million people nationwide, worsening conditions for an already vulnerable population.
The floods caused significant loss of life, with more than 360 deaths reported in several regions and many more injured. Damage was particularly severe in the northwest, southeast and Rakhine State. The floods devastated crops, agricultural land and livestock, destroying the livelihood of the most vulnerable communities.
Further information
Full text: Myanmar Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2025, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), report, published on December 13, 2024
https://humanitarianaction.info/plan/1275