Rohingya risk life and limb, dodging landmines and bullets, to flee violence in Myanmar
The victims were among around 90,000 Rohingya who have abandoned their homes in Rakhine for Bangladesh since a fresh outbreak of fighting in the state on August 25
Two Rohingya children – one of whom lost a leg – were injured by an apparent landmine blast as they tried to flee unrest in Myanmar on Tuesday, a Bangladesh border official said.
The incident came after a Rohingya woman had a leg blown off in the same area on Monday, raising fears that the border area had been deliberately mined.
“They stepped onto some sort of explosives this morning and one of them lost his leg,” border guard commander Manzurul Hasan Khan said on Tuesday of the two children.
It is not known what caused the blast, which he said was well inside Myanmar territory, but Khan said he believed it was a landmine.
Khan said a Rohingya woman had been brought to the border on Monday after losing half her leg in a blast, hours after guards heard a loud explosion from the Myanmar side.
Khan said many Rohingya were also entering Bangladesh with bullet wounds, although it was impossible to say how these were sustained as media access to the worst-hit parts of Myanmar’s neighbouring Rakhine state is limited.
They stepped onto some sort of explosives this morning and one of them lost his leg