Burma Campaign UK today condemned the British government’s decision to cut aid to Burma (Myanmar) from £66 million to £55 million in the current financial year, with the cut continuing until 2029 at least.
Yesterday, with no published media release or social media posts, hours before Parliament’s summer recess and with news dominated by England’s World Cup football loss, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office quietly published its annual report which, buried in the appendixes starting on page 233 of the 264 page report, contained details of savage cuts in UK aid in the coming years.
The Burma statistics on page 234 show that the people will only receive £55.3 million, which is around half what the UK gave before the 2021 coup, despite the huge increase in humanitarian need since the coup.
After initial cuts of 73% following the coup, in the past two years aid to Burma had started to increase again. Now cuts have begun again.
The cuts in aid will be welcomed by the Burmese military, which has deliberately created a humanitarian crisis targeting homes, schools and health clinics. Their strategy is to create a humanitarian crisis in order to demoralise and soak up the capacity of the resistance.
“British aid to Burma saves lives so these cuts will kill people,” said Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK. “Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper just gave the Burmese military a helping hand by cutting aid to Burma.”
The cuts come as the humanitarian crisis in Burma continues to grow. Official estimates are that more than 3.6 million people are internally displaced, although local civil society put the figure much higher, with as many as 5 million displaced. 80 percent of the population live in chronic poverty.
The cuts in aid come on top of the British government failing to bring in any new sanctions against the Burmese military for almost two years. Since the 2021 coup, more than 100,000 people have been killed in conflict and there are more than 14,000 political prisoners. The Burmese military carries out an airstrike every two and a half hours, killing a child on average every 29 hours.
“This government is failing the people of Burma, cutting off aid instead of cutting off arms and money going to the Burmese military,” said Anna Roberts.
Note: Figures of £92.8 million in the annual report for the past financial year relate to £25 million pounds given following the earthquake in Burma last year, on top of the core allocation of just over £66 million.