UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on April 5 appointed former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop as his new envoy for Myanmar, his office said in a statement.

As civil conflict rages in the Southeast Asian country, the post has been vacant since the departure in June 2023 of Noeleen Heyzer.

Bishop is currently the chancellor of the Australian National University, but brings extensive government experience to the role. Beyond her posting as foreign minister, she served as a cabinet minister for education, science and training.

She was a member of parliament for 20 years.

Bishop will be asked to work with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, “member states and all stakeholders to advance toward a Myanmar-led political solution to the crisis,” Khaled Khiari, the UN assistant secretary general for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, said April 4.

UN officials on April 4 painted a desperate picture of the situation in Myanmar, where mounting hunger, mass displacement and safety concerns are rife.

The military’s ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021 sparked renewed fighting with ethnic minority armed groups, as well as with pro-democracy “People’s Defence Forces” (PDFs) in areas previously untouched by decades of conflict in Myanmar.

According to the United Nations, 2.8 million people are displaced in Myanmar, 90 per cent of them since the junta took power in 2021. That number has only risen as fighting has intensified in the Southeast Asian nation since last autumn.

Food insecurity now affects about 12.9 million people, about a quarter of Myanmar’s population, according to the UN. AFP