The UN said on Friday that escalating fighting in conflict-torn Myanmar’s Rakhine State had forced about 45,000 minority Rohingya to flee, amid allegations of killings and the burning of property.
“Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent days by the fighting in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships,” Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland.
“An estimated 45,000 Rohingya have reportedly fled to an area on the Naf River near the border with Bangladesh, seeking protection,” she said.
Photo: AP
Clashes have rocked Rakhine since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked forces of the ruling junta in November last year, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since a military coup in 2021.
The AA says it is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population in the state, which is also home to about 600,000 members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Rakhine in 2017 during a crackdown by the military that is now the subject of a UN genocide court case.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk was urging Bangladesh and other countries “to provide effective protection to those seeking it, in line with international law, and to ensure international solidarity with Bangladesh in hosting Rohingya refugees in Myanmar,” Throssell said.
James Rodehaver, head of the office’s Myanmar Team, described the situation many were fleeing from.
He said his team had received testimonies and seen satellite images, online videos and photographs indicating that Buthidaung town had been “largely burned.”
“We have received information indicating that the burning did start on May 17 ... two days after the military had retreated from the town ... and the Arakan Army claimed to have taken full control of the village.”
He said that the office was still working to clearly establish “who were the perpetrators.”
One survivor had described seeing dozens of dead bodies as he fled Buthidaung, while other survivors said AA members had abused them and extorted money from them as they tried to make their way to villages south of the town.
Rodehaver said that in the weeks leading up to the burning of Buthidaung, the rights office had documented renewed attacks on Rohingya civilians by AA and the military in northern Rakhine, including through airstrikes.
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