Wounded and grieving, Rohingya flee deadly attacks in Myanmar: ‘lots of gunshots, injuries’
- Many Rohingyas fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state in recent days, as fighting escalates between troops of the ruling junta and the powerful ethnic militia
Ducking as mortar fire exploded around them, Rohingya refugee Mustafa Kamal and his family narrowly escaped the attack by a rebel militia on their town in western Myanmar.
Crowds had gathered on a small island to seek shelter after witnessing killings in the coastal town of Maungdaw, he said, but “many died on the spot”, including one of his nephews, Noor Sadek.
Others crawled and swam to reach neighbouring Bangladesh, he said.
His family are among many Rohingyas, members of a persecuted mostly Muslim minority, who fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state in recent days, as fighting escalates between the troops of the ruling junta and the Arakan Army, the powerful ethnic militia that recruits from the Buddhist majority.
Close to a million Rohingya live in refugee camps outside the Bangladeshi coastal town of Cox’s Bazar.
Medical charity Medicines Sans Frontières said its doctors had treated 54 people for violence-related injuries in recent days, 40 per cent of them women and children.