Majority of people in Myanmar are living in poverty or at risk, UN report says

BANGKOK -- More than two in three people living in Myanmar are either in poverty or at risk of falling into it, as armed conflict, limited access to basic services and economic instability deepen deprivation across the country, a United Nations report published on Thursday said.Almost 18 million people, or 32.6% of the population, are poor, while another 19.5 million are vulnerable to poverty, according to the U.N. Development Program (UNDP). That brings the total number of people in or at risk of poverty to over 37 million people, or 68% of the population.Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, triggering widespread opposition. After security forces suppressed peaceful protests with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, plunging large parts of the country into conflict.Kanni Wignaraja, U.N. assistant secretary-general and UNDP regional director for Asia and the Pacific, said: “We are seeing a depth of poverty in Myanmar that is eroding human development itself. This is a no-win war. Everyone is losing. The core muscle of the country is being systematically eroded.”The UNDP report was...