Image: A father feeds rice to his child at a displacement site in Myanmar. (Sai Kyaw Khaing/Kirana Productions/CPI)
In 2025, Myanmar faces one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. Conflict, natural disasters, economic collapse, and aid cuts have left millions struggling to survive. Here are 11 key questions answered:
Myanmar has experienced decades of internal strife, but conflict has rapidly escalated since February 2021. Violence now affects nearly every state and region. Between February 2021 and July 2025, over 53,000 violent incidents occurred across 319 of Myanmar’s 330 townships.
Conflict monitor ACLED’s global conflict index ranked Myanmar the world’s second most dangerous and violent country in 2024.
Over 3.5 million people have been displaced since 2021 and remain displaced in August 2025, the largest internal displacement crisis in Myanmar’s modern history. Many live in makeshift camps or risk dangerous border crossings to escape violence.
The UN reports that 19.9 million people, more than one in three, require humanitarian assistance, including more than six million children. This represents an almost tenfold increase since 2021.
A surge in fighting and an unstable political climate have made it more challenging to establish humanitarian corridors. Restrictions and blockades impede access to communities in need. Local groups, trusted by and embedded in their communities, are the most effective aid providers in many areas but face many challenges.
Myanmar’s health infrastructure was already fragile, but conflict has pushed it to breaking point. Clinics and hospitals face shortages of supplies and staff. Large sections of Myanmar’s population, particularly displaced and conflict-affected communities, cannot access basic health care.
The breakdown in services poses dangerous implications for infectious disease control and drug resistance, particularly for key diseases like malaria, TB, and HIV. Data from the WHO points to a tenfold increase in malaria cases between 2020 and 2023. In the same period, TB cases nearly doubled.
Years of gains against these key diseases now threaten to be reversed, endangering millions of people in the region and worldwide.
Almost half of Myanmar’s population now lives below the poverty line, and 14 million people face acute food insecurity, placing Myanmar among the world’s 10 worst food security crises. With rising inflation, many families cannot afford basic necessities. Conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic’s lingering economic effects, and worsening climate impacts such as floods and droughts amplify this dire situation.
The USAID shutdown has stripped Myanmar of hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian and development assistance in 2025 and beyond. Preliminary data show that U.S. obligations to Myanmar have plummeted by 92%, dropping from $237.6 million in fiscal year 2024 to just $17.6 million in 2025. Cuts in official development assistance by other leading donor countries intensify USAID’s withdrawal.
The loss of these critical funds in the midst of a national crisis is inflicting severe harm on Myanmar’s most vulnerable populations. The cuts undermine lifesaving humanitarian aid for millions of internally displaced people and refugees, while also dismantling essential programs to combat infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis (TB).
On March 28, 2025, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake and aftershocks struck central Myanmar, killing at least 3,700 people, injuring thousands more, and displacing over 200,000. Over 150,000 structures, including at least 50,000 residential buildings, 2,500 schools, and dozens of health facilities, were damaged or destroyed. In the hardest-hit areas, three-quarters of buildings were severely affected.
The disaster compounded an already dire humanitarian crisis for affected communities. Conflict and access restrictions have hindered aid delivery to many stricken areas. Myanmar’s faltering economy, conflict, and instability make it harder for households to recover and rebuild. The earthquake’s effects will linger for several years.
About 40% (22 million people) of Myanmar’s population lives in low-lying areas vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Cyclones, floods, and droughts damage homes and destroy farmland, driving displacement and worsening food insecurity.
In 2008, the most lethal weather event in Myanmar’s modern history, Cyclone Nargis, devastated Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta, killing at least 138,000 people. As the impacts of climate change intensify, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events affecting Myanmar are increasing.
Refugee flows strain nearby countries like Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, and India, where at least 1.5 million refugees from Myanmar are sheltering. Conflict and economic collapse since 2021 have sparked mass internal and external migration, with 3.7 million young people migrating to Thailand by 2023.
The collapse of Myanmar’s health system intensifies public health risks, including drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV, that threaten the wider region.
Community Partners International (CPI) helps communities in Myanmar and Rohingya refugees from Myanmar sheltering in Bangladesh meet their essential needs, including health care, food, safe water, and shelter, while supporting long-term resilience.
Across Myanmar, communities rely on their resilience and resourcefulness to endure immense hardship, sustained by the efforts of locally-rooted organizations. You can help them survive, rebuild, and thrive:
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