Myanmar's quiet humanitarian squeeze

A year after Myanmar’s March 28, 2025 earthquakes, some women in Sagaing and Mandalay are still rationing sanitary pads, because the same roads that should carry aid also run through front lines and military checkpoints. Aid agencies say the squeeze is not one disaster but three at once: civil war, earthquake damage, and blocked access. (abc.net.au) (unocha.org) The war came first. Since the military seized power in February 2021, fighting between the armed forces and resistance groups has displaced millions and broken health services across large parts of the country, including central Myanmar. (unocha.org) By late March 2025, before the ground even shook, the United Nations estimated 19.9 million people in Myanmar already needed humanitarian help, and the 2025 response plan was trying to reach only 3.6 million of the worst-hit because money and access were both short. (unocha.org) Then two earthquakes hit on March 28, 2025, measuring magnitude 7.7 near Mandalay and 6.4 farther south. The disaster killed thousands, damaged homes and clinics, and pushed another 2 million people into urgent need on top of the people already living through war. (unwomen.org) (unocha.org) For women and girls, the missing items are often the least visible ones. United Nations Population Fund teams say earthquake survivors needed menstrual supplies, contraception, prenatal care, and protection from gender-based violence at the same time that clean water, electricity, and functioning health facilities were disappearing. (myanmar.unfpa.org) (reliefweb.int) The numbers behind that are stark. United Nations Population Fund said more than 223,000 pregnant women were struggling to access life-saving care after the quake, and nearly 70 health facilities were damaged. (unfpa.org) Aid did get in, but not at the scale the crisis demanded. By April 25, 2025, humanitarian groups had reached at least 600,000 people with water, sanitation and hygiene support and 413,000 with food, while planning for 1.1 million people with the most severe earthquake-related needs. (unocha.org) The bottleneck was not just trucks or money. Aid groups and local responders said the Myanmar military kept restricting supplies into parts of Sagaing, a region that was both earthquake-hit and heavily contested, so relief moved unevenly and often too slowly for people living in makeshift shelters. (abc.net.au) That is why something as basic as a dignity kit matters. United Nations Population Fund distributions in Mandalay included sanitary pads, underwear, soap, and information on how women and girls could get help if they faced violence, because losing a home often also means losing privacy, safety, and any reliable place to wash. (news.un.org) Funding made the squeeze tighter. In May 2025, the United Nations said Myanmar’s main humanitarian plan was only 7.8 percent funded, while the earthquake addendum was 17.2 percent funded, leaving agencies to choose between urgent needs in a country where both conflict and disaster were still active. (unocha.org) So the quiet part of this story is not that nobody knows women need pads, clinics, and safe shelter after a disaster. It is that in Myanmar, even when aid agencies identify those needs quickly and have kits ready, war lines, damaged roads, and underfunded appeals can still keep basic supplies from reaching the women they were packed for. (myanmar.unfpa.org) (unocha.org)