Myanmar stands on humanitarian 'precipice,' U.N. warns

UN warns 18 million people in Myanmar need humanitarian aid; $994 million needed to help 5.3 million people in 2024.

One-third of the population of Myanmar, or more than 18 million people, now require humanitarian aid, the United Nations warned Monday, seeking a billion dollars in donations next year to combat the need.

The humanitarian situation in the Southeast Asian country has worsened since the coup there nearly three years ago, the global body said.

"Myanmar stands at the precipice in 2024 with a deepening humanitarian crisis that has spiraled since the military takeover in February 2021 with the civilian population that is now living in fear," said a report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published Monday.

The 18.6 million people who are currently in need of humanitarian assistance is one million more than a year ago and 19 times as many as in 2020, before the coup.

"Children are bearing the brunt of the crisis with 6 million children in need as a result of displacement, interrupted health care and education, food insecurity and malnutrition, and protection risks including forced recruitment and mental distress," warned Marcoluigi Corsi, the UN's interim humanitarian coordinator for Myanmar.

The report highlighted the particular concern of mass displacement, with nearly 2.6 million people pushed out of their homes as of December 11 — an increase of 1.1 million since the same time last year — including more than 660,000 people who have been displaced since late October amid the escalating conflict between the military and ethnic minority fighters in the country's north.

Further exacerbating the situation, "conflicts and violence are expected to worsen in 2024," the report said, while denouncing "systematic military violence against civilians."