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Myanmar
AsiaSoutheast Asia

More than 3 million in Myanmar need ‘life-saving’ aid: UN relief chief

  • Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes, with some 223,000 people still internally displaced, the UN’s Martin Griffiths said
  • Reports of ‘clearing operations’ in Chin state have also raised the spectre of past atrocities committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority

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Myanmar migrants seen apprehended at the border with Thailand earlier this month. Photo: Royal Thai Army Handout via AFP
Associated Press
The UN’s humanitarian chief urged Myanmar’s military leaders on Monday to provide unimpeded access to the more than 3 million people in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance since government forces seized power on February 1 “because of growing conflict and insecurity, Covid-19 and a failing economy”.

Martin Griffiths warned that without an end to violence and a peaceful resolution of Myanmar’s crisis, “this number will only rise”.

He also urged donors to respond to the UN appeal, saying less than half of the US$385 million required has been raised since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
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General Min Aung Hlaing casts his ballot at a polling station in Naypyidaw last November, three months before leading a coup that overthrew Myanmar’s elected government. Photo: AFP
General Min Aung Hlaing casts his ballot at a polling station in Naypyidaw last November, three months before leading a coup that overthrew Myanmar’s elected government. Photo: AFP

Monday was the first anniversary of the 2020 elections in Myanmar, which “were deemed free and fair by domestic and international observers”, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. They were won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party with approximately 80 per cent of the elected seats in the upper and lower houses of parliament. The military rejects the results, claiming the vote was fraudulent.

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“The United Nations reiterates its call on the military to respect the will of the people and put the country back on track to democratic transition,” Dujarric said, stressing that the UN remains “gravely concerned about the intensifying violence in Myanmar” and again urges unimpeded humanitarian access.

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