Two killed in Bangladesh as fighting rages on border

At least two people were killed in Bangladesh Monday after mortar shells fired from Myanmar during clashes there landed across the border, as terrified residents reported heavy fighting and medics treated several with gunshot wounds.

Parts of Myanmar near the 270 km border with Bangladesh have seen frequent clashes since November, when rebel Arakan Army fighters ended a ceasefire that had largely held since a 2021 coup.

Bangladeshi villagers living close to the border said they were fearful of the fighting, with aid agency Doctors Without Borders saying they had treated 17 people wounded in the clashes on Sunday “following fighting at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border”.

“All the patients had gunshot wounds”, MSF said Monday.

Local police chief Abdul Mannan said a Bangladeshi woman, named as 48-yearold Hosne Ara, and an ethnic Rohingya man had been killed on Monday afternoon. “They were sitting in the kitchen... when a mortar hit the place,” Ara’s daughter-in-law said.

“She was serving lunch to the Rohingya man who was hired by the family for farm work when they were hit.”

Bangladeshi villagers living close to the border said fighting broke out across the frontier last week, with many sending their children away to relatives to escape the conflict.

“We are living in fear,” said Abdus Shukkur, 75, from Tumbru Bazaar.

“It’s not our war, but they are attacking our homes and people.”

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Sunday said that border police officers from neighbouring Myanmar’s Rakhine state had “entered our territory for self-protection” ahead of advancing AA fighters.

A spokesman of the Border Guard Bangladesh said Monday that “at least 95 border officers of Myanmar have crossed the border and taken shelter in Bangladeshi border posts”.