Arakan News Agency
At least 500 Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar have arrived in Bangladesh in recent days to escape the violence, local officials announced Wednesday.
Since October, the Myanmar army has launched an offensive in the western state of Arakan, which the United Nations has described as a “terror policy” against the minority.
The Myanmar army offensive resulted in some 70,000 Rohingyas fleeing in late 2016 to Bangladesh, where they spoke of soldiers carrying out extrajudicial acts of violence such as mass gangs, assassinations and torture.
Abu Tayeb, who arrived in Bangladesh two days ago, said he fled with seven members of his family after soldiers destroyed their homes and began arresting young men.
“They arrested my younger brother at home and wounded my two-year-old son after kicking him with their shoes,” the man told AFP.
An official at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told the delegates of the additional immigrants that their numbers were “not worrying” compared to the events of last fall.
Before the start of the latest attack by the Myanmar army, Dhaka estimated 400,000 Rohingya refugees on its territory as a result of previous waves of violence, usually living amid dire misery in refugee camps that lack the minimum health conditions.
The United Nations also estimated the deaths of hundreds in a few months in Arakan, which could be the bloodiest stage in the persecution of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims.
This minority is foreign in Myanmar, which has 90% of its Buddhist population. It is stateless, although part of it has been in the country for generations. Its members are closed to the labor market and schools and hospitals are places they are not allowed to go.
The rise of Buddhist nationalism in recent years has also led to more hostility to them.
