UN official says Myanmar’s people are in ‘a severe crisis’

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N.’s top humanitarian official in Myanmar says the Asian nation’s people are living in “a severe crisis,” with a level of poverty not seen for at least 20 years. Andrew Kirkwood said in a virtual briefing Thursday that the number of people in the country needing aid has tripled to 3 million since the military takeover on Feb. 1 while a total of 20 million are living in poverty, or nearly half the population. Speaking from Yangon, the country’s largest city, Kirkwood said the crisis is the result of increasing  communal strife, the military ouster of the country’s democratically elected government and the coronavirus pandemic, which had “a devastating third wave” of infections this summer.