Myanmar junta turns aid into a weapon

Mizzima

In the wake of Myanmar’s latest natural disaster – a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake on 28 March – hope should come in the form of humanitarian relief. Instead, aid has become the latest casualty of a brutal political strategy orchestrated by the country’s military junta.

According to a damning new report titled Aid Under Attack by the Ministry of Information of the National Unity Government (NUG) the junta has systematically transformed disaster relief into a political tool. Since seizing power in 2021, the military has blocked, delayed, and manipulated humanitarian aid to serve its own interests. Using bureaucracy as a weapon, relief is selectively distributing to loyalist areas, while international aid is rebranded as state generosity.

“Access is not governed by need, but by politics,” the report states.