‘240,000 children’ have joined exodus

About 240,000 children have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh over the last three weeks, according to a UN agency.

The figure – amounting to 60% of an estimated 391,000 Rohingya refugees – includes about 36,000 children under a year old, said Unicef spokeswoman Marixie Mercado.

Ms Mercado said the figures include about 1,100 unaccompanied minors who crossed over the past week.

She spoke at a regular briefing in Geneva that included comments from many UN agencies addressing the crisis in Bangladesh.

Ms Mercado said: “As everybody here is going to tell you, the needs are seemingly endless and the suffering is deepening.”

A Rohingya insurgent group attacked police posts in Rakhine on August 25, and the miltary of Myanmar – also known as Burma – responded with “clearance operations”.

Fleeing Rohingya say security forces shot indiscriminately.