Bangladesh braces for new surge as exodus nears 300,000

COX’S BAZAR: Nearly 300,000 Rohingya have fled violence churning through Rakhine state into Bangladesh, the United Nations said, as Myanmar’s government for the first time offered humanitarian aid to members of the Muslim minority still inside the country.

The UN is braced for a further surge of arrivals in Bangladesh with tens of thousands more believed to be displaced, fleeing burning villages, the army and ethnic Rakhine mobs – who Rohingya refugees accuse of attacking civilians.

Bangladeshi authorities are planning to build a camp that could house a quarter of a million people.

But they have also urged Myanmar to stem the exodus by providing “safe zones” for the Rohingya inside Rakhine.

“Some 290,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since Aug 25,” Joseph Tripura, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, said.

There were an estimated 1.1 million Rohingya, who are reviled as illegal immigrants and refused citizenship by Myanmar, living in Rakhine state.

Around a third of that number have fled since October when a new Rohingya militant group launched its first raids, sparking a crackdown by Myanmar’s army.

Rights groups say the sheer volume of testimony by refugees alleging rape, murder and arson points to a brutal crackdown, in keeping with a systematic campaign to force the Rohingya out of the country.

It is not possible to verify their accounts as access to Rakhine is tightly controlled.

Those who have made it to Bangladesh have joined family members already encamped in the Cox’s Bazar region or thrown up makeshift shelters on hills and roadsides as monsoon rains hammer down.