Myanmar in 2025

The year 2025 was particularly devastating for Myanmar’s children, who continued to bear the brunt of one of the world’s most severe, complex and protracted crises. Nearly five years into the conflict, violence intensified, disasters multiplied, and essential services were under immense strain amid a deepening economic decline and disappearing safety nets — pushing an increasing number of children to the precipice. As the year drew to a close, safe spaces for children were vanishing, and a record 6.9 million — more than one-third of all children in the country — remained in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Children accounted for one in three of the nearly 3.6 million people displaced across Myanmar, uprooted from their homes, schools and communities by conflict and insecurity. Their lives were increasingly marked by fear and instability, as airstrikes, clashes and the widespread use of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) turned homes, playgrounds and paths to school into danger zones. Throughout 2025, 745 civilian casualties from landmines and ERW were recorded — 21 per cent were children — continuing Myanmar’s tragic ranking as the world’s most landmine-affected country. 

The 7.7-magnitude earthquake in March 2025 compounded an already dire crisis. Many children who had already endured years of conflict and displacement faced another wave of loss, trauma and fear as homes, schools and health facilities collapsed around them. More than 3,600 people were killed and over 5,000 injured. For children, the destruction meant not only the loss of shelter and learning, but deep emotional scars and growing uncertainty about the future.

Access to health care, safe water and education remained critically limited. Nearly one million children continued to miss out on basic immunizations, while 4.7 million were not accessing an education — exposing them to heightened risks of early marriage, exploitation and recruitment by armed actors. Malnutrition, unsafe sanitation and eroding social safety nets pushed families deeper into poverty, with more than half of all children living below the poverty line.

In some of the most intensely affected and hardest-to-reach areas — including Rakhine, Shan and Sagaing — fighting, insecurity and access restrictions continued to impede humanitarian operations, even as needs escalated. 

Despite these immense challenges, UNICEF — with the critical support of partners — continued to stay and deliver under difficult and often high-risk conditions throughout 2025. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, this support enabled rapid, lifesaving assistance for children and families, including emergency health care, safe water, nutrition services, protection support and temporary learning spaces. At the same time, sustained investments helped reinforce local systems and community capacities, laying the groundwork for recovery and longer-term resilience in areas already strained by years of conflict and disruption.

Through strong local partnerships, UNICEF remained alongside children most in need — delivering life-saving support at scale in frontline areas and as close as possible to affected communities, reaching children when and where it mattered most, protecting young lives and supporting recovery, resilience and well-being amid ongoing crisis.

Yet the scale of the crisis continued to outpace available resources. In 2025, UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal was only about 20 per cent funded, despite growing needs driven by the ongoing conflict, devastating earthquake, deepening poverty, economic decline and the erosion of essential services and social safety nets.