Myanmar

Displacement Situation

A patchwork of ethnic and internal conflicts has plagued Myanmar since the country’s independence in 1948, leaving many regions in the grip of protracted and interlinked crises considered to be the world’s longest active civil war. The cronic state of conflict causes both short and long-term displacement, as well as systemic rights violations – compounded by monsoon flooding and storms regularly leading to disasters.

As of 2021, more than 336,000 people in Myanmar are internally displaced. The majority are in situations of protracted displacement in Rakhine, Kachin, Kayin and Shan states (OCHA, HNO 2021) due to continued intense fighting between ethnic armed groups, militias and the Myanmar military. Most IDPs in Kachin and Shan remain in the camps since 2011.

Humanitarian needs in Myanmar continue to be characterised by a complex of vulnerability to food insecurity, armed conflict, inter-communal tensions, ethnic discrimination, effects of climate change, natural disasters, displacement, and restrictions on freedom of movement. Underlying and deeply rooted causes include entrenched ethnic discrimination and systemic rights violations, widespread unemployment and struggles for resources, as well as weak governance and rule of law.

The pursuit of durable solutions requires comprehensive investment and participatory political processes within Myanmar and across the border in Bangladesh where more than one million Rohingya from Myanmar are hosted as refugees. The majority of these refugees fled campaigns in 2017 by the Myanmar military which has later been qualified by the UN as of genocidal intent. Rohingya remaining in Rakhine continue to face severe deprivation of their rights and confinement into congested camps. In 2019, the escalation of conflict between the Arakan Army and Myanmar military and continuous intense levels of conflicts into 2020 led to high levels of displacement.

DRC Response

DRC’s work is anchored in a solid operation and presence that offers support across communities in both urban, rural and isolated communities in Myanmar’s Rakhine, Kachin and northern Shan states.

Focus is on responding to the immediate needs of vulnerable internally displaced and the communities hosting them, as well as building their resilience to shocks and stresses in the longer term. Over the course of 2020 alone, DRC and local partners reached over 125,000 displacement-affected men, women and children impacted by Covid-19 through humanitarian assistance and a variety of life-saving interventions. The pandemic has exacerbated and severed humanitarian needs for assistance in 2021 with over one million persons identified as in need of urgent assistance (OCHA, HRP 2021). This figure is rapidly increasing due to the economic impact of military seizure of power and subsequent unrest since February 2021.

DRC in Myanmar supports conflict- and displacement-affected communities through sectoral interventions:

• Protection
• Economic Recovery
• Shelter and Settlements
• Camp Coordination and Camp Management
• Humanitarian Disarmament & Peacebuilding
• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Funding

DRC is grateful to all donors for generous support and continued commitment to our work in Myanmar:
Danida · DFAT · ECHO · EU DEVCO · GIZ · MHF ·  SDC · SIDA · UNFPA · UNHCR · UNICEF · USAID-BHA