Myanmar

On 14 May 2023, Cyclone Mocha slammed into Myanmar, inflicting considerable damage in Rakhine state and northwest Myanmar, including Chin, Magway, and Sagaing. 1.6 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. Nearly 130,000 Rohingya refugees reside in overcrowded IDP camps in Rakhine, where widespread damage has been reported. The cyclone caused flooding that affected 52,000 and 50,000 people in villages in Sagaing and Magway, respectively. Infrastructure including houses, schools, hospitals, and WASH facilities have been damaged or destroyed. There is a heightened risk of waterborne diseases resulting from flooding and damage to WASH facilities. Flooding and landslides could have also moved landmines and other explosive ordnance. The affected people urgently need food, water, healthcare, and core relief items, such as clothing, blankets, hygiene kits, and jerrycans. Needs assessments are underway with communication partially restored. Access is being negotiated to enable a response.?

Extreme Constraints

Extreme access constraints persist in Myanmar. Around 600,000 Rohingya people in Rakhine state continue to be denied citizenship and face movement restrictions and a lack of access to services and aid. They are confined to displacement camps fenced by barbed wires or to their villages, and it is illegal for the Rohingya to leave Rakhine state. Since late September, the junta has been instructing the closure of IDP camps in Kachin, Rakhine, and northern Shan states (some by the end of the year and some by April 2023), potentially denying IDPs of aid. Many IDPs in Kayah state have also been living in jungles for months to escape conflict between the military and armed resistance groups, leading them to lack access to assistance.

People living in non-government-controlled areas (NGCAs), including Kachin, Rakhine, and Shan states, usually have less access to aid and assistance as authorisations for humanitarian response in such areas have generally been denied. Many other IDPs reside in remote areas, for example near the Thai border, also lacking access to aid and services.

Renewed conflict between the Arakan Army and the military has resulted in both parties implementing heightened security measures across Rakhine, including the blockage of waterways and roads in the north, limiting people’s movement and obstructing aid delivery. Security measures in other states, including checkpoints, roadblocks, and curfews, continue to constrain the movement of people, goods, and aid.

In 2022, the junta suspended all registration for civil society organisations and the renewal process for those whose registrations expired in December 2021. In late October, the junta also enacted the Organisation Registration Law, prohibiting any organisation from operating without a registration certificate or working with unregistered affiliates.

Visa delays, banking restrictions, and tax issues constrain the import of medical supplies, affecting humanitarian response. In September, the junta instructed UN agencies and international and local NGOs operating in several townships in Rakhine to halt their operations, affecting aid distribution in IDP camps.

Violence and fighting continue to affect humanitarian access. The military’s restrictions on the passage of humanitarian items, including food and medicine, affect conflict-affected areas, with claims that these items could be distributed to anti-coup and ethnic armed groups. Fewer violent events against aid workers have been reported in the last six months compared to the previous period. Flooding and heavy rainfall in Kachin, Rakhine, and Shan have disrupted humanitarian response.

For more information you can consult our latest Global Humanitarian Access Overview – December 2022.