Myanmar

Displacement Situation

A patchwork of on-going ethnic and internal conflicts have plagued Myanmar since the country’s independence in 1948, leaving many regions in the grip of a protracted and interlinked set of crises considered to be the world’s longest active civil war. Rights violations are regular and systematic, and the chronic state of conflict causes both short and long-term displacement.  

Despite the signing of a nationwide ceasefire in 2015, several ethnic armed groups and militias in Kachin, Shan, Rakhine and Chin states are still in active conflict with the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw), and these persistent conflicts regularly trigger civilian displacement. 

In 2019, the conflict between the military and the Arakan Army (a Rakhine ethnic insurgent group founded in 2009) caused the displacement of 80,000 people in Rakhine and Chin states and has seen increased levels of intensity into 2020. Inter-ethnic violence force people to flee their homes in Rakhine, Chin, Kachin, Shan, Karen and Mon states, and in the Bago Region.

Rohingya populations, who suffered a crackdown from the Tatmadaw in 2017 which has been qualified by the UN of genocidal intent, continue to face severe deprivation of their rights and confinement into congested camps. Rakhine and other vulnerable minority and displaced groups are facing growing protections risks and rights violations, as well as restrictions on their freedom of movement and on their access to services and livelihood opportunities.

Monsoon flooding is a seasonally recurring natural hazard that is compounding the vulnerability of people in Myanmar. This triggered most of the 270,000 new displacements recorded in 2019. 

DRC Response 

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has been operating in Myanmar since 2009, when the first team arrived to provide emergency assistance in the aftermath of the devastating Cyclone Nargis.

As of 2020, DRC works in three states in Myanmar - Rakhine, Kachin, and northern Shan – with activities covering five core sectors:

• Protection (including Gender-Based Violence and Child Protection)
• Livelihoods (including income-generation through vocational and business training, Village Saving Loans and Association, micro-enterprise development, and MPCA/cash transfers as part of a Covid-19 response)
• Camp Coordination and Management
• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
• Humanitarian Mine Action that includes Mine Risk Education, Victim Assistance and Non-Technical Surveys

 

Funding

DRC is grateful to all donors for generous support and continued commitment to our work in Myanmar:

Danida · DFAT · ECHO · EU DEVCO · GIZ · HARP · LIFT/UNOPS · MHF ·  SDC · SIDA · UNFPA · UNHCR · UNICEF · USAID-OFDA