The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns again that the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is deepening as conflict continues in many parts of the country and fighting escalates in Rakhine State. OCHA said on Friday that civilians continue to face extreme protection risks, acute food insecurity and a near total collapse of essential public services.
More than three years after a military takeover in 2021, the humanitarian situation remains dire, with more than a third of the country's 57 million people now estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance.
By the end of 2024, conflict has driven more than 3.5 million people from their homes, an all-time high and a staggering increase of nearly 1.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) from 2023. Some 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar are hosted by neighboring countries, including some 149,000 new arrivals since February 1, 2021.
In its latest report on Myanmar, also published on Friday, OCHA said that in 2024, the people of Myanmar faced a deepening humanitarian crisis, marked by escalating needs amid unabated conflict, recurrent monsoon flooding and record displacement, and a response that is critically under-resourced.
Despite huge needs, the humanitarian emergency remains one of the most neglected in the world. The situation in Myanmar hardly receives the international political and media attention it deserves, despite being one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, with 19.9 million people - nearly a third of them children - in need of assistance in 2025.
Alongside women, children are bearing the brunt of the humanitarian crisis, with 6.3 million children in need as a result of displacement, disruption to health and education, food insecurity and malnutrition, and protection risks such as forced recruitment.
In mid-December, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners launched the 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan for Myanmar, seeking $1.1 billion to reach 5.5 million people with life-saving assistance over the course of the year.
According to OCHA, conflict between the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) and various ethnic armed groups and political resistance groups persists in Rakhine, the Northeast, Northwest and Southeast, with 12 out of 15 regions affected by armed conflict.
In 2024, Myanmar has seen armed groups unite and rapidly expand across the country, while the Southeast Asian nation has also been hit by extreme flooding and other climate-related disasters. Myanmar is one of the world's three most vulnerable countries to extreme weather, facing severe climate shocks such as cyclones and floods.
A year after Cyclone Mocha struck in 2023, widespread 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 the already vulnerable population.
Humanitarian agencies reached an estimated 3.9 million people by the end of the year, despite access constraints, with the humanitarian response remaining critically under-resourced.
According to OCHA, humanitarian agencies in Myanmar continue to face a number of challenges in providing humanitarian assistance to the vulnerable populations, mainly related to issues of access, logistics, resources and security.
Meanwhile, efforts continue to gain better access to people in need. For example, despite significant access constraints, humanitarian actors reached more than 234,600 flood-affected people with food assistance.
However, by the end of the year, the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) was only 36 percent covered by funding, one of the worst resourced responses globally, drastically limiting the ability of aid agencies to provide assistance to people prioritized for urgent relief.
As of September, some 15.2 million people faced acute food insecurity, with IDPs and communities in Chin, Kachin and Rakhine states and Sagaing region facing the greatest acute food needs.
In December, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) released 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.
Further information
Full text: Myanmar Humanitarian Update No. 43, Reflecting on 2024 and preparing for 2025, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), report, published January 3, 2025
https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-humanitarian-update-no-43-reflecting-2024-and-preparing-2025