Gwyn Lewis, the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in Bangladesh, said on Wednesday that “Myanmar is facing one of the most severe and most neglected humanitarian crises in the world.”
In a post on the platform “X,” monitored by the Yemen News Agency (Saba), Lewis stressed the urgent need for immediate funding, stating, “We really want to ensure access to every person among the most vulnerable groups.”
Since Myanmar’s military seized power in early February 2021, it has committed acts of genocide, particularly against the Rohingya Muslims.
A report issued by the Burma Human Rights Network noted that recent years have witnessed “the killing of thousands of civilians by generals, the arrest of more than 30,000 political prisoners, and the displacement of at least 3.6 million people. Their atrocities — including war crimes and crimes against humanity — have intensified over the past year, particularly against Muslim communities in Myanmar.”
The London-based network’s report added that “military violence has been accompanied by systematic attacks on religious life since the coup, with the military leadership destroying numerous Islamic religious buildings through airstrikes and deliberate arson, closing mosques, seizing historic cemeteries, and allowing extremist nationalists to incite hatred with impunity.”
