Myanmar: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict 2022

OVERVIEW

The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) identified 271 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care in Myanmar in 2022, a decrease from 474 in 2021. In these incidents, 112 health workers were arrested and 27 were killed, undermining health care providers’ ability to maintain safe staffing levels to effectively meet patient needs. In addition, health facilities were damaged or destroyed on at least 46 occasions and raided 32 times, impacting the population’s access to health care. A total of 103 incidents were related to the ongoing political protests following the February 2021 military coup. The remaining 168 occurred in the context of armed conflicts that erupted before and after the coup. This factsheet is based on the dataset 2022 SHCC Health Care Myanmar Data, which is available for download on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX).

THE CONTEXT

In the second year after the military coup on February 1, 2021, the humanitarian and health situation continued to decline in Myanmar, as the ruling junta and its security forces specifically and violently targeted health workers. Those affiliated with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) continued to be arrested.

The current government, the State Administrative Council (SAC), established by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military) following the coup, has increasingly declined foreign aid and humanitarian assistance, thereby creating legal and administrative barriers for NGOs attempting to help conflict-affected populations. Human rights abuses by SAC security forces and widespread fighting resulted in the internal displacement of almost 1.2 million people and led to 70,000 fleeing abroad since the coup.

Armed conflict between SAC forces , on the one hand, and various opposition armed groups units under the name of the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) and allied ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) on the other hand, have increasingly affected health care in 2022. The opposition National Unity Government (NUG), set up by parliamentarians in office before the coup, has a joint command system with several EAOs that have been fighting the Tatmadaw for decades. In addition, local defense forces (LDFs), are engaged in the conflict, but operate more autonomously from the NUG command structure, and were reported to have directly affected health care in 2022.

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