Myanmar in 2025

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

Children account 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 are increasingly marked by fear and instability, as airstrikes, clashes and the widespread use of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) turn homes, playgrounds and paths to school into danger zones. In the first half of 2025 alone, 357 civilian casualties from landmines and ERW were recorded — 27 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 remains critically limited. Nearly one million children continue to miss out on basic immunizations, while 4.7 million are 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 are pushing families deeper into poverty, with more than half of all children now 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 continue to impede humanitarian operations, even as needs escalate. 

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 continues 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.

Without urgent and sustained support, millions of children face mounting trauma, deprivation and loss — placing their survival, learning and future at grave risk. Every day without action pushes more children beyond the reach of help, and further away from the safe, dignified and hopeful future they deserve.