14.4 million people incl. 5 million children in Myanmar need humanitarian assistance: UNICEF
Multiple challenges, including escalating conflict and violence, the Covid-19 pandemic, climate-related disasters, rising poverty and a collapse in public services in Myanmar have left an estimated 14.4 million people including 5 million children in need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF Myanmar has pointed out in a statement.
More than 320,900 people, including women and children, are internally displaced due to clashes and insecurity in Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Mon and Shan states and in Magway, Sagaing and Tanintharyi regions. This is in addition to the 340,000 people living in protracted displacement before February 2021[3]. With the conflict spreading to previously unaffected areas, it is estimated that 14 out of 15 states are contaminated with landmines, explosive remnants of war or improvised explosive devices.
These interrelated risks are threatening child survival, development and well-being across the country.
Before the current crisis, about 34 per cent of the country’s 17 million children lived below the poverty line. A further 33 per cent of the population were living just above the poverty line. These people are now at great risk of falling back into poverty due to economic disruptions resulting from the current crisis. The effects of the third wave of Covid-19, combined with the economic and political situation following the military takeover in 2021, is projected to push almost half of the population into poverty by 2022.
Hard-won gains in the area of child rights are now being wiped out, threatening children’s lives, well-being and prosperity. Protecting and fulfilling the rights of children, as required by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Myanmar is a State party, and the 2019 Myanmar Child Rights Law, should be a priority for everyone.
Urgent and sustained actions are needed to save an entire generation of children and young people from suffering the profound physical, psychological, educational and economic impacts of this crisis.
A UNICEF study carried out in 2020 estimated that Covid-19 could push an additional third of children in Myanmar into poverty, adding to the almost one third of children already living in poor households.
This significant increase in poverty will result in millions of children being cut off from basic services, depriving them of opportunities to fulfill their potential and putting them at risk of abuse and exploitation.
UNICEF has established mechanisms to monitor how the crisis is impacting children, particularly those in families which have lost their income, whose caregivers are detained and those who are unable to access learning or health care. Data and evidence generated through this monitoring work will inform UNICEF efforts to protect children from the worst impacts of poverty.
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