The situation in Myanmar - Press Conference (30 September 2021)

The United Nations of Earth reporting on this issue: "The situation in Myanmar - Press Conference (30 September 2021)"
The topics: UN Humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar Andrew Kirkwood warned “the people of Myanmar are really in the event of a severe crisis at the moment no matter how one defines that term.” Speaking to reporters via a video link today (30 Sep), the Acting Resident Coordinator said, “before the military took over, the United Nations was supporting a million people affected by the conflict here inside the country, and that number, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance now is three million, that is a tripling over the last eight months.” He added, “in addition to that, there are another two million people living below the poverty line, nearly half of the population. That’s a rate of poverty that we have not seen in Myanmar for at least 20 years.” Kirkwood also reaffirmed the UN’s commitment to help with the humanitarian situation in the country, he said, “our colleagues are on the ground, they are delivering food and cash assistance, improving access to healthcare, and water and sanitation and all the basic services.” The Acting Resident Coordinator noted that, “since February, our food and cash assistance has reached more than 1.4 million people in rural communities, and all around the country, as well as some urban areas, centres as well.” Regarding humanitarian assistance challenges, Kirkwood said, “first, there are very significant operational challenges: travel, COVID-19 restrictions, road blocks and overall insecurity, are definitely the main reasons we cannot reach everybody we want to.’ He called on all in parties to “use their influence to facilitate safe and unhindered access to, for humanitarian workers and also our humanitarian supplies.” On funding shortage, Kirkwood said, “we have requested a total of $385 million dollars to reach those three million people this year. Today we received about a fourth of that. And that means we have a funding gap of roughly $250 million dollars just for this year. And that means in terms is that we really won’t be able to reach everybody in need.”


Click here for more information, to subscribe to the channel of United Nations or to watch the video on YouTube.