In Burma, the number of displaced people has reached 3 million, according to the United Nations, the vast majority due to the civil war sparked by the 2021 military coup.
2 mins
Around 2.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes to escape the clashes that have ravaged this country of 54 million since the coup that toppled the civilian government ofAung San Suu Kyi.
The generals’ takeover has reignited fighting between the army and armed ethnic groups present in several regions of the Burma and gave birth to dozens of “people’s defense forces” that the junta failed to crush.
“ In 2024, Burma finds itself on the brink of a worsening humanitarian crisis », Declared in a press release the Resident Coordinator, representative of the United Nations in the country. It is estimated that a third of the displaced people are children, according to this press release published Monday.
Half of those displaced in the last six months
Nearly half of the displaced people were displaced in the last six months, after an offensive launched in October 2023 by an alliance of ethnic armed groups in Shan State, in the north of the country, according to the UN.
This offensive represented for the generals in power a military threat of a magnitude not seen since the 2021 coup, according to analysts. It allowed the alliance to take possession of entire swaths of Burmese territory and border posts crucial for trade on the Chinese border.
In Burma, the border areas are home to myriad armed ethnic groups, many of whom have been fighting the military since independence from Britain in 1948 for more autonomy and control of wealth.
With the hurricane season approaching in May-June, the United Nations has announced that a shortage of funds risks hampering its humanitarian operations. More than 355,000 people are currently displaced in western Rakhine State – in the west of the country, shaken since November by clashes between the Arakan Army (AA) and the army.
Read alsoWhere is Burma three years after the coup?