ASIA/MYANMAR - Four years after the coup: prayer and charity in the face of violence, hunger and displacement

Yangon (Agenzia Fides) - "Catholics hope that the state of emergency will not be extended and pray for justice and peace," Joseph Kung, a Catholic from Yangon who works in the National Human Rights Commission, told Fides. In the country, February 1 marks the fourth anniversary of the coup in which the military junta overthrew the democratic government and dissolved parliament. According to observers, General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the junta, is about to extend the state of emergency, while reiterating his intention to hold elections by 2025.
The civil war, which has left more than 50,000 dead and 3.5 million internally displaced, has led to a food emergency and the situation will worsen in 2025, according to estimates by the United Nations World Food Programme, while more than 15 million people will suffer from hunger and 20 million inhabitants (more than a third of the total population) will need humanitarian aid for food and disease.
The number of displaced people will also rise to 4.5 million. The civilian population is also threatened by landmines, which, according to the 'Landmine Monitor 2024', are causing victims in all 14 states and regions of Myanmar and in about 60 percent of cities (692 in the first six months of 2024). As observers tell Fides, the army is placing landmines in villages,
farms, rice and corn fields and near military camps. When farmers go to the fields to harvest food, they risk their lives. Catholic communities and religious orders, meanwhile, report on the plight of children: on the one hand, there is a growing phenomenon of child labor, where children are employed in sectors such as clothing, agriculture, catering, domestic work, construction and street vending, which is a blatant violation of children's rights. On the other hand, the closure of schools and educational institutions denies children and young people the fundamental right to education, with serious implications for the future of the nation. Many religious orders and Catholic parishes are therefore setting up small informal schools where they try to provide children with an education. Father Terence Anthony, parish priest of the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in the southern part of the Archdiocese of Yangon, told Fides: "We entrust ourselves to the Lord in prayer and do our best with concrete actions. In many areas of the country, where there is fighting or where there is no violence, priests, religious and catechists dedicate themselves tirelessly to the service of wounded and tried humanity. We comfort the afflicted and give bread to the hungry. We place ourselves at the service of the poor, the displaced and the weakest, trying to give a concrete witness of the love of God." (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 31/1/2024)

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