Foreign indifference compounds suffering of civilians in Myanmar – UN report

Mizzima

As the situation in Myanmar worsens after five years of conflict-related violence since the military coup, a decline in international assistance is further compounding the suffering of millions of people, a report entitled “Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar” published on 22 June by the UN Human Rights Office finds.

At the same time, foreign actors continue to transfer arms, their parts and components, ammunition and munitions, as well as jet fuel and other dual-use items to the Myanmar military, which risks facilitating violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, the report states.

SEEKING TO SAVE LIVES

It highlights how civil society organisations and local governance structures have had to take civilian protection into their own hands to save lives and ensure a minimum level of access and availability of essential services, despite continuous attacks by the military on the civilian population. Reductions and suspensions in international assistance are now threatening the sustainability of these locally-driven protection mechanisms when support is most needed.

The report covers the period from August 2025 to the end of January 2026 – from the military’s announcement of elections through to the conclusion of the voting period – detailing serious human rights violations amid ongoing conflict-related violence, lack of respect for the rule of law, denial of humanitarian assistance, and the impact of the military-controlled elections.

FUNDING ‘ESSENTIAL’

Reduced international assistance has increased civilian exposure to harm, the report says, adding: “Predictable funding is essential to strengthen civilian protection initiatives.”

Decline in support has forced deep programme cuts, closures and layoffs within civil society organisations, and ethnic media and women’s organisations impacted disproportionally. Humanitarian and community-based programmes, including assistance to displaced people, education initiatives, and psychosocial support, have been curtailed or halted, thereby increasing community vulnerability.

Due to military blockades and these cuts, emergency healthcare provision has deteriorated, with organisations reporting difficulties maintaining medicine supply chains and health facilities. Safe houses for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence have closed or operate at a reduced capacity, while boarding facilities, education, and women-focused programmes have been scaled down or sustained only through reallocating limited emergency resources. Education programmes for displaced children and psychosocial support initiatives have also been curtailed.

CONFLICT-RELATED CRISES

Serious human rights violations and abuses, amid generalized insecurity and instability, characterized the period preceding the military-controlled elections. OHCHR verified incidents that evinced trends and patterns of violations and abuses that significantly undermined the essential fundamental rights and freedoms necessary for credible elections.

Credible sources reported to have verified a minimum of 702 civilian deaths across the country during the reporting period. Of these, 224 were women and 153 children, which, combined, accounted for over 53 per cent of the total civilian fatalities. Air strikes remained the single largest cause of destruction and suffering. At least 505 civilians, including 175 women and 112 children or 57 per cent of the total, were killed in attacks carried out with jet fighters, drones, paramotors and gyrocopters.

For comparison, analysis of open sources over the same period indicated that at least 1,015 civilians died in over 1,400 air strikes. Rohingya men, women, boys and girls have also remained exposed to forced recruitment by the Arakan Army, as well as to killings, arbitrary arrests and sexual violence.

Exemplifying the life-threatening risks and protection needs of the civilian population, on 6 October 2025 at around 8 p.m., 23 civilians, including two women and four children, were killed, and over 60 others wounded, after two large-calibre munitions were successively dropped by paramotors, striking civilians gathered in front of a school in Bon To village, Chaung-U township, Sagaing. At the time of the attack, participants were holding a candlelit event to celebrate the end of Buddhist Lent, and to call for the release of political prisoners, oppose military conscription and reject military elections.

After rescuers arrived, another munition landed, without resulting in casualties but heightening fears. Artillery shelling directed towards a nearby clinic further disrupted efforts to transport the wounded. A public statement in military-affiliated media claimed that the attacks were part of a “counter-terrorism operation” in which armed groups used civilians as shields, without providing corroborating information.

SPIKES OF CIVILIAN DEATHS

Data analysis corroborated spikes of civilian deaths in two periods: August and September 2025, and December 2025 and January 2026. Credible sources reported that in August and September 2025, they verified at least 265 civilians killed, of whom 161 in air strikes. In December 2025 and January 2026, 228 civilians were reportedly verified as killed, 183 in air strikes. These periods coincided with the announcement of the elections and advancements by the military on the battlefield as it attempted to secure its territorial reach.

Further exemplifying this situation, on Human Rights Day, on 10 December 2025, at around 9 p.m., the military destroyed a 300-bed hospital in Mrauk-U, Rakhine, killing 33 civilians, including 17 women and a three-month-old baby, and injuring dozens other civilians. Interviewees reported that aircraft had dropped two munitions, one of which struck a patient ward, while the other landed next to the hospital’s security booth, killing four volunteers and destroying the facilities. Victims were mostly patients and those visiting family members, including a pregnant woman, several ethnic-Rakhine civilians, and a Muslim man and child. This was the deadliest incident against a health facility since the coup, out of a total of 1,873 reported incidents as at 31 January 2026.

The military claimed that four armed groups had been using the hospital as a base, although this claim cannot be independently verified. Civilians in the central regions and in Rakhine suffered the greatest impact of the military violence. Credible sources reportedly verified 573 of 702 civilian deaths as occurring in these areas during the reporting period. Of these, 476 deaths were due to air strikes with 111, including 43 women and 10 children, in the run-up to the voting in December 2025.

SITUATION DIRE IN SAGAING

Sagaing remained the most dangerous region for civilians as the military pressed to gain ground, with 191 deaths, including of 60 women and 30 children, with air strikes responsible for over 70 per cent of the total. On the evening of 5 December 2025, during the election period, a military aeroplane bombed a tea shop in Tabayin township, as people had gathered to watch a football match. Credible sources reported to have verified at least 19 civilian deaths, including four women and one child, with reports of 20 others wounded. Deploying low-cost, lightweight aerial vehicles, such as paramotors and gyrocopters, the military widened the scope of its aerial attacks striking civilians and critical infrastructure.

According to analysis of open sources, in the reporting period, the military carried out over 300 aerial attacks using paramotors (209 attacks) and gyrocopters (102 attacks), killing a total of 134 civilians, including 22 women and 13 children. Numerous air attacks reportedly damaged or destroyed schools, health facilities, markets, monasteries and displacement sites, heightening protection risks and furthering insecurity among the civilian population.

ANTI-MILITARY ARMED GROUP ACTIONS

Anti-military armed groups also carried out operations in opposition to the military-controlled elections. According to the military, anti-military armed groups disrupted the electoral process through the distribution of false propaganda, intimidation and threats to voters, party officials and electoral personnel, attacks on polling stations and security personnel, and the use of explosives and firearms, with a total of 54 acts of sabotage.

Credible open sources indicated that anti-military armed groups carried out attacks that affected civilians, including a minimum of 95 election-related incidents, with Bago and Yangon respectively experiencing 39 and 18 attacks. Over 80 per cent of the violent incidents reportedly occurred during the prime election period, from November 2025 through January 2026, with an average of 26 per month. Anti-military armed groups claimed responsibility for the use of mortars and rocket-propelled weapons, drone-delivered explosives and improvised explosive devices, the bombing of and shooting at polling stations, the killing, arrest and abduction of electoral personnel, and ambushes on convoys transporting ballot boxes. One such instance included a reported drone attack during voting on 11 January 2026 against the General Administration Department office in Htantabin township, Bago, in which one public official was killed and another wounded, also resulting in the closure of the polling station.

Another incident, on 25 January 2026, the third-round voting day, in Taungtha town, Mandalay, involved anti-military armed groups firing heavy weapons around the time of the opening of polling stations. No civilian casualties were reported. This climate of widespread insecurity amid acts of violence by all parties further affected the election environment and continued to drive overall humanitarian and protection needs. Violence repeatedly forced civilians to flee their homes to seek safety, both within Myanmar and abroad, exacerbating the regional impact of the military-created crisis. While the United Nations reported about 3.7 million people displaced since the coup, the actual number is believed to be significantly higher, as many did not seek assistance through formal mechanisms. In addition, the earthquake in March 2025 and seasonal floods compounded an already dire situation, leaving over a million without shelter or access to basic services.

Consistent with conflict patterns, 35 per cent of the total displaced persons were from Sagaing, and nearly 50 per cent when combined with those from Rakhine.

ARSON ATTACKS

Reports of over 300 incidents of arson, with responsibility attributed to the military, were received, although they could not be independently verified. As previously reported, arson attacks drove humanitarian needs and heightened concerns for civilians deprived of food, shelter, personal and property documentation, and even professional tools for people to work and sustain their families. Some 9.2 million people face acute food insecurity, while over a third of the population requires humanitarian assistance.

Food insecurity was particularly pronounced in northern Rakhine, with projections estimating a deterioration to critical phase in Maungdaw and catastrophe phase in Buthidaung by May 2026. Concerns remain profound for Rohingya, as military-imposed blockades of goods reaching Rakhine are severely aggravating their situation.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

The economic fallout from the crisis continues to worsen, compounded by an estimated $11 billion in economic losses following the 2025 earthquake. 16 The resulting decline in economic activity and loss of livelihoods have had far-reaching implications for the enjoyment of economic and social rights, including the rights to work, housing rights, education and health. While lower volatility in staple food prices and targeted relief measures in 2025 helped moderate food costs, the pressures remained significant.

Despite inflation deceleration in 2025, inflation on non-food items increased to 26.3 per cent, from 25.6 per cent in 2024. Displacement raised demand for housing and frequent power outages kept energy costs high, pushing inflation in housing and energy to about 30 per cent.

Conflict-affected areas, including Bago, Kachin, Magway, Shan and Sagaing, recorded the highest inflation rates, between 18 and 26 per cent, while being affected by access constraints, restrictions on commodity flows, checkpoint delays and funding shortfalls.

HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF COMMENTS

“As if the people of Myanmar have not suffered enough at the hands of the military, they have now seemingly been forgotten by those outside the country. Funding for localised protection efforts was in many areas the only solace from the suffering caused by constant targeting and indiscriminate attacks by the military. This pullback just compounds that injury,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk.

“The international community should hold up a mirror to themselves, and ask: after a decade of grievous suffering, are we going to fail the people of Myanmar yet again? The answer must be no.”

Community-based groups, civil society organisations, and local governance systems have shouldered the responsibility of creating and managing their own local protection mechanisms across Myanmar, providing a measure of modest relief far short of needs.

LOCALLY-DRIVEN SYSTEMS

Early warning, emergency healthcare, and coordination of humanitarian assistance, are currently often provided through locally driven systems that made strengths out of local knowledge, adaptability, and creativity to begin to overcome the serious limitations upon them, the report finds.

“These mechanisms, though fragile and constrained, demonstrated that degrees of protection are possible even under extreme conditions, when grounded in legitimacy, trust, and collective organisation,” it says, emphasising the need for international support for local protection efforts.

The High Commissioner repeated his call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and facilitation of humanitarian access to all civilians in urgent need of food, clean water, medicines, and basic services.

CALL FOR ACTION

In the light of the report’s findings, the High Commissioner calls upon the Myanmar military:

(a) To cease immediately all violations of international humanitarian law and all violations and abuses of international human rights law, including attacks directed against civilians and civilian objects, including schools, hospitals, religious sites and camps for displaced persons, in compliance with Security Council resolution 2669 (2022);

(b) To allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief to civilians in need, which is impartial in character and conducted without any adverse distinction, and to lift restrictions on the delivery of food, medicine, essential supplies and telecommunications;

(c) To cease all practices of arbitrary conscription, including of children and Rohingya, that are incompatible with international human rights law, and immediately effectuate the release of those affected;

(d) To release all arbitrarily detained prisoners without further delay, and to ensure effective remedies for all cases of deprivation of liberty, including on grounds of alleged evasion or refusal of conscription.

The High Commissioner recommends that the National Unity Government, ethnic armed organizations and anti-military armed groups:

(a) Cease immediately all violations of international humanitarian law and all violations and abuses of international human rights law;

(b) Take specific steps to respect and ensure the protection of civilians, including by making efforts to ensure the accountability of perpetrators of violations and abuses and adopting gender- and age-sensitive measures in consultation with affected communities, in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law and international human rights standards;

(c) Cease all practices of forced recruitment, particularly with regard to children and Rohingya, and immediately effectuate the release of those affected.

The High Commissioner recommends that States, including members of ASEAN:

(a) Refer, through the Security Council, the situation of human rights in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court;

(b) Cease and prevent the transfer to Myanmar of arms, their parts and components, ammunition and munitions, as well jet fuel and dual-use items, where there is a risk that they could facilitate violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of international human rights law;

(c) Politically and financially support the demands by the people of Myanmar for democracy, justice and respect for human rights and the rule of law, including by systematically engaging with the National Unity Government and other relevant democratic actors, including representatives of local governance structures;

(d) Refrain from lending legitimacy to the military’s purported exercise of civilian authority, particularly by refraining from resuming programme delivery or the provision of technical cooperation activities with institutions under its control;

(e) Promote confidence-building measures and political dialogue based on verified and meaningful progress in adhering to international law, including with regard to the de-escalation of violence, the protection of civilians, humanitarian access and the release of political prisoners;

(f) Support ASEAN regional efforts to achieve the cessation of hostilities, ensure unhindered humanitarian access and free all political prisoners;

(g) Ensure the protection of civilians, including Rohingya, fleeing violence abroad by granting international protection consistent with international law, providing solutions for long-term legal status and providing access to basic services, including education, health and employment opportunities, amid growing concerns related to forced recruitment and conflict-related violence if they are returned;

(h) Consult with civil society organizations on the technical, financial, humanitarian and protection needs of the civilian population and ensure predictable, direct and timely provision of funds to civil society to implement effective life-saving programmes.