One-third of Myanmar population needs humanitarian assistance: UN

WASHINGTON

Drawing attention to the "grim" humanitarian situation in Myanmar, a UN official on Monday said a 3rd of the Asian country's population needs humanitarian assistance.

"The UN and our humanitarian partners today published the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for the country for 2024. The Plan paints a grim picture of the humanitarian situation in the country three years after the military takeover.

"A third of the population – or 18.6 million people – needs humanitarian assistance. This is a million more people than last year and almost 19 times the number of people requiring assistance before the military takeover," UN secretary-general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

"Children are bearing the brunt of the crisis," he said, adding some six million of them need aid due to displacement, interrupted health care and education, food insecurity and malnutrition, as well as protection risks.

Women, girls, people with disabilities, and Rohingya people are "among those impacted the most by this dangerous environment," he added.

"In the face of soaring needs, humanitarians have prioritized 5.3 million people for urgent assistance in 2024 and will need US$994 million," he said.

In 2017, Myanmar’s military launched violent operations against the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine State which rights groups have since called a genocide. Nearly 1.2 million Rohingya were forced into neighboring Bangladesh, where they have been living for years in overcrowded refugee camps.

Since the coup in Myanmar in 2021 that ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar military carried out a "brutal nationwide crackdown" on millions of people opposed to its rule.