Growing humanitarian crisis in Manipur

• The India-Myanmar borderlands are a data-deficient region with significant gaps in documenting humanitarian needs.

• The Manipur conflict, despite its history of armed conflict, displacement, and humanitarian crises, has led to significant gaps in data.

• Estimates indicate approximately 58,000 individuals have been forcibly displaced and are living in hundreds of “relief camps” in the Valley and Hill districts.

• The conflict has led to a breakdown in the chain of accurate humanitarian information due to the physical separation of the Meitei and Kuki-Zomi communities.

• Official estimates only account for those in registered relief camps, omitting unregistered individuals living with relatives, in temporary shelters, or displaced across multiple locations.

• The conflict has altered health-care-seeking behavior in Kuki-Zomi-dominated hill districts, with major tertiary healthcare institutions in Imphal still inaccessible.

• Displaced populations in the Imphal Valley struggle with increasing out-ofpocket expenses for medical treatment, often leading to a discontinuation of care.

• The absence of systematic documentation results in underreported cases of mortality, malnutrition, and disease outbreaks.

• Dwindling resources, donor fatigue, and conflict-induced inflation have worsened conditions for displaced populations on both sides of the ethnic divide.

• The humanitarian crisis in relief camps persists, with a high risk of outcomes worsening as the situation extends into the third year.

• Mitigating measures include enhancing external cross-cutting humanitarian support, augmenting the supplies of clean drinking water, creating “humanitarian corridors,” and restoring supply chains for the transport of essential commodities, food items, and medical supplies.