Myanmar Humanitarian Brief, September 2018

More than 725,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since the armed attacks and subsequent security operations in August 2017 which prompted the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.

Up to 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Rakhine State continue to face serious hardships and are in need of humanitarian assistance due to displacement, restrictions on their freedom of movement, limited access to essential services, and other deprivations (this includes all those still in Rakhine, including displaced people in camps).

More than 128,000 Muslims (98 per cent of whom are stateless Rohingya) remain confined in camps and camp-like settings more than six years after the outbreak of violence in central Rakhine in 2012. They are living in deplorable conditions as a result of movement restrictions, lack of adequate access to healthcare, education and livelihoods, over-crowded-shelters, and other challenges.

In Kachin and Shan states, 107,000 people remain displaced as a result of the conflict that re-started in 2011. The conflict has escalated since the beginning of the 2018 and about 28,000 civilians have fled conflict and been temporarily displaced since January 2018.

Humanitarian access in Myanmar has deteriorated significantly in recent years. In northern Rakhine, some UN staff now have access, but most international NGO staff who were present before August 2017 are still barred from resuming humanitarian activities. In Kachin State, for more than two years the UN has not been permitted by the Government and Military to deliver assistance to about 40,000 displaced people in areas controlled by armed groups.

Myanmar is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world and is regularly hit by floods, cyclones, and earthquakes. Over 268,000 people have so far been temporarily displaced by monsoon seasonal floods in 2018.