YANGOON: The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Myanmar has doubled since February last year, now crossing the 800,000 mark, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) announced on Friday.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said the agency was stepping up aid for the displaced as conflict intensifies. “Security is deteriorating rapidly across the country as fighting and armed conflict intensifies with no sign of abating,” Saltmarsh said.
In total, some 440,000 people have been newly displaced since February 2021 -when a brutal military coup displaced the democratically elected government – adding to an existing 370,000 who had fled their homes previously, the UN said in a statement.
The statement said that the agency believes the trend will accelerate, with more displacements in the coming weeks and months. Meanwhile, the military came to power in Myanmar on February 1 last year.
The humanitarian situation in Myanmar remains precarious, with rising commodity prices, job and income losses, disruptions to basic services, and prolonged insecurity.
Because of that, the majority of internally displaced people are consequently dependent on humanitarian support for survival, the statement said. Some 600,000 stateless Rohingya in Rakhine state, including some 148,000 displaced in camps, villages, and displacement sites, require humanitarian support, the statement added. (ANI)
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