As a strong military ethnic group bears down on dictatorship positions in a coastal town on the country’s borders with Bangladesh, tens of thousands of Rohingya from the Muslim minority are feared to get caught in fighting in eastern Myanmar.
The Arakan Army ( AA ), which is fighting for autonomy for Myanmar’s Rakhine region, said late on Sunday that residents of Maungdaw town, inhabited primarily by the Rohingya, should leave by 9 p. m. ahead of a planned offensive on the settlement.
The AA’s assault on Maungdaw is the most recent rebel attack against the Myanmar junta, which came to power in a coup in February 2021 and is now finding itself in an exceedingly weakened place in large parts of the nation.
We are going to strike the last posts of the dictatorship, the AA said in a statement, urging people to stay away from military installations in Maungdaw for their own health.
A coup spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Around 70, 000 Rohingya who are already in Maungdaw are trapped as the struggling draws closer, said Aung Kyaw Moe, the lieutenant human rights secretary in Myanmar’s dark National Unity Government.
” They have no where to move to”, he told Reuters.
Despite the neighboring nation’s resistance to accepting more immigrants, tons of Rohingya emigrated to Bangladesh last month in search of protection from the escalating conflict.
Their movement was sparked by battles in and around the town of Buthidaung, which is located about 25 kilometers ( 15 miles ) east of Maungdaw, which the AA seized after fierce fighting in which the rebel group was accused of attacking the Rohingya community.
The AA denies the claims.
For decades, Rohingya have been persecuted in Myanmar, which has a Buddhist lot. Almost a million people fled a military-led assault in Myanmar in 2017 and are now living in refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar boundary district.
