Red Cross pushes for aid corridors into war-torn Myanmar

BANGKOK — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is in talks with Myanmar's ruling junta, its armed opponents and its neighbours to provide cross-border humanitarian assistance into the war-torn country, its chief said on Wednesday (Sept 11).

Myanmar has been mired in conflict since Feb 2021 when top generals ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering widespread protests that grew into an armed rebellion challenging the powerful military.

With wide swathes of the country in turmoil, about a third of Myanmar's 55 million people require humanitarian assistance but the ICRC cannot operate in many areas because of access restrictions and security risks, said Mirjana Spoljaric.

"There's a total absence in certain regions of medical services, I mean, a complete collapse," Spoljaric told Reuters.

"There's not even medicine coming in at the moment, and there's very little food available."

During a visit to Myanmar that ended this week, Mirjana said she told junta chief Min Aung Hlaing that the ICRC has the capacity to deliver more assistance.

"The problem is access," she said. "It's critical at the moment because we can't even go and assess the humanitarian needs, and this is something that we need to remedy."

Cross-border approach

In an effort to push more aid into Myanmar, the ICRC is engaging multiple parties on the possibility of sending assistance through neighbours such as Bangladesh and Thailand.

"This was a constant topic of conversation," Spoljaric said, "The cross-border issue is on the table."

In March, Thailand delivered some aid into Myanmar, as part of an initiative backed by the Southeast Asian bloc Asean to open a humanitarian corridor.

"The lesson learnt is you need