Hunger has reached alarming levels in Myanmar and the situation is set to deteriorate further in 2025, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned on Wednesday. A staggering 15 million people are expected to go hungry this year, rising from 13.3 million in 2024. The warning comes as Myanmar nears four years since the military seized power in the Southeast Asian country.
In 2025, more than 19.9 million people in Myanmar - over a third of the country's 57 million people - are expected to need humanitarian assistance, up from just 1 million before the military took power on February 1, 2021.
Children are bearing the brunt of the country's humanitarian crisis, with 6.3 million children in need as a result of displacement, disruption to health and education, food insecurity and malnutrition, and protection risks such as forced recruitment.
Conflict between the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) and various ethnic armed groups and political resistance groups continues in Rakhine, the Northeast, Northwest and Southeast, with 12 of Myanmar's 15 regions affected by armed conflict.
Over the past year, Myanmar has seen armed groups unite and rapidly expand across the country, while the Southeast Asian nation has also been hit by extreme flooding and other climate-related disasters. Myanmar is one of the world's three most vulnerable countries to extreme weather, facing severe climate shocks such as cyclones and floods.
According to WFP, people living in active conflict areas, particularly in Chin, Kachin and Rakhine states as well as Sagaing region, experience the highest levels of food insecurity in the country.
“Growing conflict across the country, access restrictions, a crumbling economy and successive weather-related crises are driving record levels of hunger,” said Michael Dunford, WFP’s Representative and Country Director, in a statement.
As conflict continues to rage across much of the country, people are being forced to flee their homes in record numbers. More than 3.5 million people inside Myanmar are displaced due to armed conflict and violence, a number that is expected to rise to 4.5 million by 2025 as the conflict takes root and spreads to new areas.
Food is the most critical need for internally displaced people (IDPs), but spiraling costs and rapid inflation have made it unaffordable for many. The cost of basic staples - including rice, beans, oil and salt - has risen by 30 percent in the past year.
“Food prices in Myanmar continue to rise each and every month. Even if some food is available in local markets, people simply don't have the resources to buy the basics, which means they are eating less and going hungry," said Dunford.
The rapid escalation of humanitarian needs and food insecurity in Myanmar has been overshadowed by international political turmoil and a surge in global crises that have diverted public attention away from Myanmar.
Despite the enormous needs, the humanitarian emergency remains one of the most neglected in the world. The situation in Myanmar receives little of the international political, diplomatic, and media attention it deserves, despite being one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.
“The world cannot afford to overlook Myanmar’s escalating crisis. Without immediate and increased international support, hundreds of thousands more will be pushed to the brink,” said Dunford.
WFP aims to reach at least 1.6 million people in Myanmar with life-saving food, nutrition and resilience support by 2025. The UN agency says it is engaging with all parties to the conflict and expanding partnerships with local organizations to ensure that its life-saving assistance effectively reaches those who depend on WFP for vital support.
In 2024, Myanmar faced a deepening humanitarian crisis, characterized by escalating needs amid unabated conflict, recurrent monsoon flooding and record displacement, and a response that is critically under-resourced.
As of January 2025, last year's Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) was only 36 percent funded, one of the worst-resourced responses in the world, which drastically limited the ability of aid agencies to provide assistance to people prioritized for urgent relief.
In mid-December, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners launched the 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan for Myanmar, seeking US$1.1 billion to reach 5.5 million people with life-saving assistance over the course of the year.
In a statement issued through his spokesperson on Thursday, UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres condemned all forms of violence in Myanmar and called on all parties to the conflict to exercise maximum restraint, respect human rights and international humanitarian law, and avoid further incitement to violence and intercommunal tensions.
“He reiterates his concern regarding the military’s stated intention to hold elections amid intensifying conflict, including aerial bombardment and widespread human rights violations and without conditions that permit the people of Myanmar to freely and peacefully exercise their political rights, including safety and security,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for Guterres.
“Unimpeded access must be assured to enable the UN and our partners to continue to deliver humanitarian assistance and essential services.”
Guterres reiterated his call for greater cooperation among all stakeholders to bring an end to hostilities and help the people of Myanmar chart a path towards an inclusive democratic transition and a return to civilian rule.
He also called on countries in the region to ensure access to safety and protection for those fleeing conflict and persecution, and for the international community to provide greater support to countries, including Bangladesh, hosting refugees from Myanmar.
More than 1.36 million people from Myanmar are refugees and asylum seekers, including approximately 1.14 million Rohingya who have been forced to flee to other countries.
In Rakhine State, Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority is currently facing another wave of deadly violence, seven years after a military-led campaign in 2017 forced hundreds of thousands to flee to Bangladesh.
That year, more than 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh following mass atrocities by Myanmar's security forces in Rakhine State. They joined hundreds of thousands of other Rohingya who had previously sought refuge in the country.
On November 27, 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for Myanmar's acting president, General Min Aung Hlaing, for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya committed in 2017.
In 2024, tens of thousands of Rohingya were driven from their homes as intense fighting between junta forces and the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group, engulfed Rakhine State. The conflict has been ongoing since November 2023 and now affects 16 out of 17 townships in Rakhine State, bringing the total number of people currently displaced there to an estimated 570,000.
In December, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) released its annual Emergency Watchlist, highlighting the 20 countries most likely to face escalating humanitarian needs in the coming year. Myanmar ranked third on the dismal list of countries of particular concern.
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), Myanmar was the second most conflict-ridden country in the world in 2024. It also ranked as the third deadliest and fourth most dangerous country for civilians, with 43 percent of the population exposed to conflict.
Also on Thursday, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said the fourth anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar was a time to mourn the loss of thousands of innocent lives at the hands of a "brutal military regime" while celebrating those who continued to stand up for human rights in a country under siege.
“It is also a time for the international community to provide the people of Myanmar a genuine partnership to help end this nightmare,” Andrews said, adding that four years of “military oppression, violence and incompetence” had cast Myanmar into an “abyss”.
“Junta forces have slaughtered thousands of civilians, bombed and burned villages, and displaced millions of people. More than 20,000 political prisoners remain behind bars. The economy and public services have collapsed. Famine and starvation loom over large parts of the population,” the Special Rapporteur said.
“The junta’s plans, including holding sham elections this year in a backdrop of escalating armed conflict and human rights violations, are a path to ruin,” Andrews said.
He urged governments to support efforts to hold perpetrators of gross human rights violations accountable, including through the International Criminal Court, and to support the democratic movement and civil society in laying the foundations for a strong judiciary and transitional justice processes.
“Impunity has enabled a decades-long cycle of violence and oppression in Myanmar. Ultimately, this sad chapter of Myanmar’s history must end with junta leaders being prosecuted for their crimes,” Andrews said.