Since May 2023, ethnic conflict between Meitei and Kuki-Zomi communities in Manipur has triggered a deepening humanitarian crisis, displacing over 67,000 people and severely restricting access to healthcare, especially for women and children in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.
The violence has led to major policy shifts, including the abrogation of the Free Movement Regime and border fencing along the Indo–Myanmar border, disrupting humanitarian access to Myanmar’s Chin and Sagaing regions. Within Manipur, mobility between valley and hill districts has collapsed, causing critical shortages of medicine and supplies in Kuki-Zomi areas.
The conflict has exposed and deepened health inequities, with stark disparities in access to care between valley and hill districts. Historically, healthcare provision helped bridge ethnic divides; today, those networks are fractured, leaving vulnerable populations without specialist care.