Naypyidaw [Myanmar], August 24: Thousands of Rohingya in Myanmar are fleeing their homes and taking dangerous boats to Bangladesh after being attacked by insurgents. The Muslim minority is on the run again, seven years after a crisis that forced hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in the neighboring country.
Bombing, shelling
According to The Guardian, the Arakan Army (AA) rebel group has taken control of most of Rakhine state from the Myanmar military, leaving the minority Rohingya community in their area. The AA shelled villages, forcing them to flee their homes and gathering the men in a concentration area. Abdus Sukkur, who used to live in Maungdaw township in Rakhine, fled to Bangladesh in mid-August after his children were killed in an attack. "The AA used drones to bomb us, so we had to run away from home and go to Bangladesh. I didn't even have time to pray for my son's funeral because we had to run away so quickly," he said.
A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was not possible to verify the exact numbers, but that thousands of Rohingya had fled the towns of Maungdaw and Buthidaung in recent weeks. The official said the coordinated attack began on August 5, when AA fighters forced residents of several villages to gather on the riverbank and attacked them with explosive-laden drones.
"This is not a case of the Rohingya being trapped between the AA and the military. This time it is different, it is the AA targeting the Rohingya because the military has been completely pushed out of the area," the official said, adding that international mediators were trying to reach out to the AA.
Bodies floating in the river
Rohingya rights activists in Bangladesh's Nayapara refugee camp said on Monday they had found three bodies washed up on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River, adding to dozens of others found in recent weeks. Many villagers fled to nearby rivers in the hope of escaping by boat to the Rakhine capital Sittwe or across the border to Bangladesh. Bangladesh has forced many boats back, but Bangladeshi security forces are overwhelmed after weeks of unrest over the resignation of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The head of the new caretaker government, Muhammad Yunus, has said they will continue to provide assistance to the refugees.
"We need sustained efforts from the international community for humanitarian activities for the Rohingya and their repatriation to Myanmar with safety, dignity and full rights," he called.
The Rohingya have fled several waves of conflict and violence in Myanmar, according to the UN. The largest wave occurred in August 2017, when 742,000 fled to Bangladesh to escape fighting between government troops and insurgents. They joined some 300,000 people who had previously sought refuge in Bangladesh, most of them in Cox's Bazar, now the world's largest refugee settlement, and are completely dependent on humanitarian aid. An estimated 500,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar, and many fear the latest wave of violence will force more to flee their homes.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
