The story in brief: The war in Burma (Myanmar) has displaced 3.5 million people, now living in IDP camps that receive little or no international support and remain targets of government airstrikes. The UN is fully aware of the crisis but, apart from issuing reports, has done nothing to help.
U.S. aid cuts had little impact on these people, since almost no international or government assistance was reaching them in the first place. Now it appears the international community will tolerate, and even legitimize, the junta’s planned election, which has barred pro-democracy and opposition parties. Donald Trump was right to criticize the UN as ineffective and to cut U.S. aid. However, targeted U.S. aid should be restarted, and a UN peacekeeping mission launched, to save lives.
On August 11, six families arrived at the Catholic church in Mese, Karenni State, Burma seeking food and assistance. They had endured a three-week ordeal through the jungle to escape fighting near their home village in Pekhon, where government forces and the allied Pa-O National Army (PNO) were killing civilians, seizing rice fields, and burning entire villages. This was part of an intensified government campaign to retake territory held by ethnic resistance forces ahead of a sham election the junta hopes to legitimize by claiming that a greater share of the population and the country’s territory are represented.
The opposition and pro-democracy parties have been barred from the election, leaving only parties backed by or aligned with the military regime that seized power in 2021. Yet the UN and international community have done nothing to stop the slaughter of civilians, and many Burmese, as well as analysts and the tiny contingent of faith-based, cross-border aid workers on the front lines, fear that the UN will ultimately accept the results as legitimate.
Seeing that they had small children with them, I asked how the children had traveled. One of the mothers replied, “They walked.” She added, “When they were tired, we had to carry them.” This was one of the reasons they had brought almost nothing else from their homes.
The group’s leader explained that the elderly, along with those already injured by government bombings of civilians, were still on the way, part of a larger group of about 500 people led by two Catholic priests from their village. Most of them were from the Kayan and related sub-ethnic groups, which are predominantly Catholic. Many bore Italian baptismal names such as Maria, Augustino, Domenico, and Antonia.
It was for this reason they had come to the church, asking for rice, mosquito nets, and tarps, so they could begin preparing a place to sleep.
The priest, Father Alfonso, explained to me that the state’s civilian government, the Interim Executive Council (IEC), together with the resistance forces of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) and the Catholic Church, would be helping the new arrivals establish a permanent village some distance from town. Because Mese experiences fewer government airstrikes than other parts of Karenni State, it has become a gathering point for internally displaced people.
In the early stages of the revolution, many believed their displacement would be temporary and that they would return to their villages once the fighting subsided. Instead, the war has dragged on, and those areas have changed hands multiple times as the government and resistance forces battle to retake territory.
There are already eight IDP camps in and around Mese, some housing families who have been displaced two or three times. The UN claims that only 80 percent of the state’s population is displaced, but for me and the small contingent of foreigners working on the ground, never more than 20 people at most, that number downplays the true scope of the crisis. Closer to 100 percent of the population is no longer living where they were before the coup. And with many having moved multiple times, one could argue the real displacement figure is closer to 200 percent. In the end, however, the number is irrelevant, because the UN does not aid internally displaced people.
IDPs receive almost no food rations or support from the UN or foreign government aid programs. Camp residents are not resettled, and the camps themselves enjoy no international protection, often coming under government airstrikes. For these reasons, Khun Bedu, chairman of the resistance forces, said he wanted to begin calling these displacements “relocation.” Rather than building temporary camps, the interim civilian government seeks to help IDPs establish permanent villages where they can grow rice and raise animals to ensure food security. Father Alfonso agreed with this plan, but stressed the urgency of moving IDPs out of the city and into remote areas as quickly as possible to avoid creating easy targets for government airstrikes.
In the absence of international aid, the IDPs survive on donations from the church and from the state government, which itself functions entirely on donations since the war has wrecked the economy, leaving nearly 100 percent of the population unemployed and providing no income to tax. Father Alfonso receives about $300 a month from the Maryknoll Catholic Foundation, which he uses to buy supplies for the camps on a rotating basis. But with thousands of IDPs already in Mese and more arriving, $300 is only a fraction of what is needed.
In Thailand and the United States, people have criticized me for supporting President Trump, asking, “You work with these people every day, how can you support Trump shutting down USAID?” My answer is simple. Most of the USAID money was wasted on foolish projects: $1.5 million to “advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities,” $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland, $2.5 million for electric vehicles in Vietnam, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru, $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala, and $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt.
And when it came to Burma, almost none of the U.S. aid reached the 3.5 million people displaced inside the country. Most of it went instead to UN refugee camps and related services in Thailand, leaving those on the ground in Burma with no international support and no protection.
Here in Mese, the Catholic Church has placed 245 volunteer teachers in the IDP camps. Additionally, they run St. Peter’s School, which has about 400 students. Only the 25 teachers at St. Peter’s receive a salary, of $35 USD a month, plus one sack of rice. When Father has extra, he gives additional food to the 245 volunteer teachers. Last year, he was able to give them one sack of rice each, one time.
Each school has a series of bomb shelters, open trenches, and the children are conditioned to understand that there are no good airplanes in Burma. Only the junta has planes and helicopters, and when they hear them overhead, the children and teachers run and hide in the trenches.
Schools are a particular target for airstrikes. For this reason, many operate in shifts, and IDP camps often choose not to consolidate them. Instead, each camp maintains its own small school to reduce the risk of mass casualties. Among the eight camps currently operating, there is one elementary school, one junior high school, and one high school, each located in a different camp. Children must walk along jungle paths to attend their lessons.
Like the IDP camps, the schools are funded through private networks, mostly religious, with Christians in America or elsewhere sharing what they can. There are also some donations from people in other parts of Burma whose families are now in these camps. But those people are also poor and being affected by the war.
Families are separated now, with some members in liberated zones, some in zones controlled by the Burma Army, and some in Thailand. Many know they will never see their family members again until the war ends… but after 80 continuous years of fighting, peace and democracy, followed by family reunions, seems like a remote hope.
As I spend a great deal of time with the military, I am particularly sympathetic to the plight of the resistance soldiers. They receive no salaries and can do nothing to support their families, who are often living in camps. If their parents remain in government-controlled areas, they may be better off materially, but this also means the soldiers cannot visit them. Any contact would risk the parents being arrested for having sons fighting in the revolution.
When a resistance soldier is killed, his body cannot be sent to government-held areas, so he is buried alongside his unit in resistance-controlled territory, leaving his parents to grieve without the closure of a funeral. And because there is no phone service or internet in much of the country, many families have not heard from one another for years. In the meantime, parents may themselves have been displaced multiple times, and often never receive word when their son has been killed.
The cycle of violence and displacement is horrific. Government forces create displacement by attacking villages. Since July 8, around 150 junta troops have carried out arson attacks in Nyaung-U Township, Mandalay Region, forcing more than 20,000 residents from roughly 30 villages. After driving people from their homes, the military then targets IDP camps.
One such camp, located between La Ei and Bi Kin villages, sheltered civilians fleeing clashes near the Shan-Karenni state border was hit with a government airstrike which wounded several civilians. One bomb failed to detonate preventing even greater casualties and was removd by resistance forces. On July 8, 2025, the junta bombed two IDP camps in Pekhon Township, the same area that the newly arrived IDP’s in Mese came from, in southern Shan State, killing at least three civilians, including a four-year-old girl, and injuring three others. The victims were members of the same family, recently displaced by heavy fighting in the nearby strategic town of Moebye, which regime forces had recaptured from Karenni resistance fighters.
“Civilians are suffering from this war and are tired of running from place to place without enough food, water, and shelter. I have seen these things all the time—including my mother, brothers, and sisters, who are IDPs. I want to help my people however I can. So I had the idea to make a video of what is happening in my country and share it with the world,” wrote a female Karenni medic working with the Free Burma Rangers, a faith-based frontline aid organization, who filmed a relief mission to document the plight of her people under the Burma Army.
Human rights groups warn that conditions for displaced civilians are worsening with the rainy season, as monsoon floods and limited shelter and transport options compound their suffering. Burma faces an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe: by the end of 2024, more than 3.5 million people had been internally displaced, a 72 percent increase in just one year, with 1.4 million newly displaced since. UN officials estimate that nearly 20 million people—about 37 percent of the population—will need humanitarian assistance in 2025.
Food insecurity is reaching crisis levels. UN experts project that 15.2 million people, nearly a third of the country, will face acute hunger this year. The Global Report on Food Crises 2025 ranks Myanmar eighth worldwide, with 14.4 million people suffering high levels of food insecurity. The World Bank reports that 42 percent of farming households fear not having enough food, agricultural output may drop by 30 percent, and prices for staples such as rice, beans, oil, and salt are expected to rise by 30 percent.
Children are among the hardest hit: 55 percent now live in poverty, while over 40 percent of children aged six to twenty-three months lack access to diverse, nutritious meals essential for survival and development.
All of this unfolds while civilians continue to be bombed by government forces. The UN and international organizations compile data and issue reports, but they have taken no meaningful action to stop the suffering.
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