More than 12 million face acute hunger in Myanmar, WFP says

Dec 11 (Reuters) – More than 12 million people in Myanmar will face acute hunger next year as mounting violence forces more people to flee their homes, the United Nations ‍World Food Programme said on Thursday.

Around 1 million of those will face emergency levels of hunger, meaning they will need lifesaving support, the agency added.

“Conflict and deprivation are converging to strip away people’s basic means of survival, yet the world isn’t paying attention,” Michael Dunford, WFP Country ‌Director in Myanmar, said in a statement.

“This is ‌one of the worst hunger crises on the planet, and one of the least funded.”

A spokesman for Myanmar’s ruling junta did not respond to calls seeking comment on WFP’s projections.

Myanmar has been in crisis since ​the military seized power in 2021 and cracked down on protests, prompting a nationwide armed uprising.

At the moment, more than ‍400,000 children and mothers with acute malnutrition ​are surviving on plain rice or watery porridge, ​the WFP said.

Myanmar’s military has previously detained food-security researchers and warned aid ‍workers not to release information revealing that millions of people are experiencing severe hunger, Reuters has reported.

The military is planning to hold elections starting on Dec. 28. Critics and human rights groups have dismissed the vote as an attempt by ruling generals ‍to legitimise their rule through proxy political parties – a charge dismissed by the junta.

An estimated 3.6 million people have been displaced within Myanmar, ‍with scores fleeing their ‍homes multiple times and often ending up ​in makeshift shelters with limited access to food, ​healthcare, and ⁠clean water, the U.N. says.

Nearly a third of ‌Myanmar’s population of 51.3 million people will need humanitarian assistance next year, according to a U.N. assessment released on Wednesday.

“Conflict is expected to intensify around the elections, while climate shocks and economic decline will continue to erode resilience,” it said.

(Reporting by Reuters Staff, Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal ⁠and Andrew Heavens)