Renewed Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh as violence surges in Myanmar

According to a prominent refugee official, rising violence in western Rakhine state of Myanmar may have encouraged some Rohingya Muslims to flee into Bangladesh, despite Dhaka’s insistence that it cannot take in any more migrants from its war-torn neighbor.

For decades, Rohingya have been persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. In 2017, a military-led crackdown on the minority group in Rakhine forced many of them to flee to Bangladesh.

The Bangladeshi official in charge of repatriation and refugee help, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, stated that his office has heard of Rohingya crossing over to increase the number of people living in camps for refugees in the Cox’s Bazar region to around a million.

“Some people have managed to enter Bangladesh in various ways and have taken refuge in different places,” Rahman, who is based in the southeastern coastal region, told news agency Reuters.

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“I believe some people are being allowed to enter unofficially.”

Following the collapse of the truce between the Arakan Army (AA), one of Myanmar’s most potent ethnic armies, and the ruling junta late last year, fighting has returned to Rakhine.

The junta is at its weakest since taking power in a coup in 2021 as a result of the AA’s conquest of nine important towns in the coastal province and its continued drive to seize further territory.

Amidst allegations that it had singled out Muslims throughout the offensive, the AA announced in May that it had taken over the heavily Rohingya-populated town of Buthidaung. The insurgent organization refutes the accusations.

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Maungdaw, a town west of Buthidaung mostly inhabited by Rohingya, received a warning from the AA on Sunday to evacuate in anticipation of an impending attack on the village.

However, a number of locals, a representative of the Rohingya community, and the UN human rights commissioner have stated that Maungdaw’s inhabitants have nowhere to go because escape routes have been blocked.

It is estimated that 70,000 Rohingya are stuck in the region.