Looking Back on 2025

Overview

Nearly five years after the February 2021 military coup, Burma/ Myanmar remains engulfed in a deepening political, economic, and humanitarian crisis. People across the country continue to experience widespread and long-lasting hardship as the economy deteriorates and inflation drives the cost of basic necessities beyond the reach of most households. Daily life is marked by frequent power outages, internet blackouts, corruption, poor transportation infrastructure, and widespread unemployment. Ongoing armed conflict—particularly in ethnic and rural areas—has created pervasive insecurity, forcing communities to live in constant fear amid airstrikes, artillery attacks, and ground offensives.

The conflict has resulted in mass displacement on an unprecedented scale. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 3.6 million people are currently displaced.1 Internally displaced persons (IDPs) face severe stress and anxiety due to food shortages, limited livelihood opportunities, disrupted education, and restricted access to healthcare, including life-saving treatment for civilians injured in ongoing junta attacks. Children are among the most affected: many lack safe access to education as schools are repeatedly targeted by airstrikes and shelling, while food and water shortages and inadequate nutrition continue to undermine their well-being and development.

Natural disasters have compounded civilian suffering. The devastating earthquake on March 28, 2025 was felt across the country, with the worst impacts in Mandalay, Sagaing and Magwe Regions, further displacing already vulnerable communities and overwhelming limited coping capacities. At the same time, landmines pose an ongoing and deadly threat. Burma/Myanmar continues to record some of the highest landmine casualty rates globally; in 2023 alone, 1,003 people were killed by landmines.2 The military junta routinely deploys landmines in active conflict areas, including farmland, placing returning farmers and civilians at constant risk of life-threatening injury.

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