More than 400,000 Rohingya displaced in Myanmar violence

Bangladesh says it is struggling to cope with tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees who are crossing the border from Myanmar everyday.
2 min read
16 September, 2017
More than 400,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh after government troops launched a crackdown on Muslim areas of the country.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will ask the world for assistance at a UN meeting, as thousands of Rohingya continue to head across the border.

Hasina is to demand more pressure on Myanmar during UN talks in New York.

"She will seek immediate cessation of violence in Rakhine state in Myanmar and ask the UN secretary general to send a fact-finding mission to Rakhine," a spokesman for the prime minister, Nazrul Islam, told AFP.

"She will also call the international community and the UN to put pressure on Myanmar for the repatriation of all the Rohingya refugees to their homeland in Myanmar," he said.

Bangladesh has been overwhelmed by Rohingya Muslims since the government launched an assault on Myanmar's Rakhine state on 25 August.

More than 409,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, a leap of 18,000 in a day.

The impact of the new arrivals on already overwhelmed refugee camps has been devastating.

The UN said two children and a woman were killed in a "rampage" when a private group handed clothes near a camp on Friday.

Bangladesh has complained to Myanmar over alleged violations of its airspace by drones and helicopter and of landmines being planted on the border.

Bangladesh and UN leader Antonio Guterres say the campaign against the Rohingya could amount to ethnic cleansing.

Protests have been held across the world urging international action to end the killings.