A/80/490 VI. Deepening humanitarian crisis and cuts to foreign aid 72. Myanmar faces a spiraling humanitarian crisis driven by armed conflict and the junta’s purposeful obstruction of humanitarian relief efforts. The devastating conditions in the country have been exacerbated by severe funding cuts. 73. Approximately 3.6 million people have been displaced by armed conflict and human rights violations in Myanmar. At the beginning of 2025, the UN estimated that 19.9 million people required humanitarian assistance, a figure that increased to 21.9 million following the earthquake in March. 74. In the first eight months of 2025, the UN reported 649 “access-related incidents,” including military operations, administrative restrictions as well as threats and violence against humanitarian actors and infrastructure. The junta has regularly withheld approval for humanitarian operations, leading to the suspension of planned relief activities. Junta officials in many areas have arbitrarily imposed new regulations and requirements on civil society and humanitarian organization, adding to the thicket of bureaucratic red tape that delays and obstructs the delivery of aid. Roadblocks and checkpoints continue to be a significant impediment to humanitarian relief efforts. 75. Many families in Myanmar struggle to put food on their table. In addition to obstructing aid deliveries, the junta has systematically restricted livelihoods, disrupted agriculture and destroyed food stores and agricultural infrastructure. Landmine contamination has also been a major impediment to food production. The junta has often planted landmines in farm fields and agricultural areas, leaving many villagers fearful of returning to their fields and harvesting their crops. Severe flooding during the rainy season submerged farmland, destroyed crops, killed livestock and damaged agricultural infrastructure. 16.7 million people now face acute food insecurity. 76. The food crisis is most severe in Rakhine State, where the UN has warned of famine and hundreds of thousands face starvation. By restricting land and sea transportation, the junta has imposed a blockade on aid deliveries and trade into areas of Rakhine State controlled by the Arakan Army. According to a survey by the World Food Programme, 57 percent of families in central Rakhine State cannot meet their basic food needs. This marks a dramatic and rapid increase from the 33 percent that reported similar food challenges in December 2024. The situation in northern Rakhine State, where communications and movement restrictions make data collection near impossible, is likely significantly worse. 77. The dire food situation in Rakhine State has led families to adopt dangerous and desperate coping strategies, including taking on new debt, scavenging for food, withdrawing children from school in order to work and engaging smuggling networks. Domestic violence and human trafficking are on the rise. Severe hunger has reportedly led to a dramatic rise in suicides in Rakhine State. 78. For four years the junta has attacked health care workers and infrastructure, leading to predictably dire health conditions for the people of Myanmar. In the first eight months of 2025, researchers recorded 169 attacks on health care, including attacks on medical facilities and the killing, kidnapping and arrest of health workers. The junta has systematically restricted the importation and distribution of medicines, including antiretroviral therapy drugs for HIV-positive persons. Health care workers and humanitarian organizations have reported outbreaks of malaria, acute watery diarrhea, other waterborne diseases and skin infections in many parts of the country, especially among displaced populations. 79. The humanitarian response in Myanmar continues to be dreadfully underfunded. Global reductions to humanitarian funding led the UN to implement a “Humanitarian Reset” in mid-2025 involving the “hyper-prioritizing” of humanitarian aid plans to focus resources on the most vulnerable populations. Myanmar’s re-prioritized plan for 2025 cut the number of people targeted with humanitarian aid from 6.7 million to 4.8 million, a total that is less than a quarter of the 21.9 million in need of humanitarian assistance. As of early-October 2025, the UN’s baseline humanitarian appeal for Myanmar was only 13 percent funded. 80. In April 2025, inadequate funding forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to cut food assistance to over one million people in Myanmar. These cuts impacted 100,000 displaced people in central Rakhine State whose only source of food was WFP aid. Underfunding has led to the closure of at least 65 health facilities serving over 212,000 11