Food Aid for Refugees in Myanmar in 2026

Since the coup in Myanmar, civil war and economic crisis have plunged nearly 18 million people into food insecurity. Children of the Mekong supports displaced households and families through food aid. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your generosity.

What is happening in Myanmar?

The military coup brought an end to ten years of openness and of economic and social development. For context, Myanmar was already under military rule until 2010, following the successive coups of 1962 and 1990. The vast majority of Burmese people opposed this seizure of power through a nationwide general strike (45% of civil servants, doctors, and teachers resigned) and mass protests. Within a few months, the repression grew harsher. Since the summer of 2021, the country has descended into civil war. This conflict pits armed groups from the country’s various ethnicities against the military.

The regions hardest hit by the conflict are in the centre (Kayah State and the Sagaing region), the west (Chin State), and the south (Karen State). According to the government, the conflict has caused nearly 3,500 deaths (an underestimate) and displaced almost 2.6 million people internally, who have fled into the forest or into makeshift camps with no water, food, or basic amenities. The escalation of violence is relentless. Myanmar is now split in two: the zone still controlled by the military, and the zones controlled by the ethnic armies and the civilian population who have taken up arms.

The country’s collapse has triggered a serious economic crisis. The cost of everyday living has doubled, or even tripled in some regions, because of transport, causing great hardship for families. As a result, the price of daily necessities has risen enormously. 18 million Burmese people, or 32% of the population, are in food insecurity — meaning they do not have enough to eat and need humanitarian aid. That is a million more than at the end of 2022, and six times more than in 2020. The country’s level of development is once again comparable to that of 2005, before the country opened up. Yet international humanitarian aid has so far not been authorised, since this is an internal conflict unrecognised by Myanmar’s leaders.

In the young people’s homes, local coordinators are facing a rise in the number of young people taken in, falling resources, and rising prices. They cannot meet the basic needs of the children in their care without outside help. In the camps for internally displaced people, families arrive with nothing and depend on the support of the local host communities, which themselves have no external aid to help them care for these refugees.

• Families and children can survive (their basic needs are met), and they are freed from the daily anguish of finding something to eat.
• The home managers are able to take in and feed the young people.
• Once fed, the children can concentrate on their lessons.
• Local communities are not destabilised by the arrival of such a large number of people with no resources.