ROHINGYA KILLINGS REPORTED IN MYANMAR AS ARAKAN ARMY APPROACHES MAUNGDAW

Wed 07 August 2024:

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made relevant parties on the ground and online. While Independent Press takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

New reports of crimes against Rohingya residents in western Myanmar have emerged as a powerful ethnic armed group approaches the town of Maungdaw in Rakhine State.

According to Rohingya activists and local media sites, the Arakan Army (AA) killed an unknown number of Muslim Rohingya civilians in recent days as it increased its control over the predominantly Rohingya town near the country’s border with Bangladesh.

🚨Another horrific chapter in the #Rohingya #genocide. Thousands forced from their homes in #Maungdaw, Myanmar, are now fleeing to Bangladesh. The military junta and #AA are using the current situation in Bangladesh to ethnically cleanse the region. Hundreds of lives #lost. This… pic.twitter.com/tS8zIIwdeh

— Rohingya Human Rights Initiative – R4R (ROHRIngya) (@ROHRIngya) August 6, 2024

Wai Wai Nu, a well-known Rohingya activist based at the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Human Rights Center, wrote on X yesterday that the situation in Maungdaw had turned into “a deadly catastrophe” and that the town’s Rohingya population had been victims of “escalating atrocities.”

1/ The situation in #Maungdaw is now a deadly catastrophe. Escalating atrocities are being targeted at #Rohingya civilians by the second. My community members there tell me that they’ve been entirely expelled from the downtown & are now trapped along #Myanmar–#Bangladesh border.

— Wai Wai Nu (@waiwainu) August 5, 2024

Citing local community sources, she said that the Rohingya had been “entirely expelled from the downtown” of Maungdaw and were now trapped along the Naf River, which forms the township’s long border with Bangladesh. She reported that “over a hundred” Rohingya had been killed, and that AA drone strikes near the Naf injured many others. She said that Rohingya were also being killed in the crossfire of the battle between the AA and the remaining Myanmar military forces in and around the town.

Another Rohingya journalist claimed that the AA “killed more than 200 [Rohingya]” in Maungdaw yesterday, and that “thousands” were on their way to cross the Naf River into Bangladesh. His post on X was accompanied by a video appearing to show dead bodies strewn along the ground.

On August 5th, around 8:00 p.m., the AA terrorist group dropped a bomb using a drone on a group fleeing by boat to Bangladesh. Tragically, all but two youths lost their lives. This video shows people recovering the bodies on the beach today. #RohingyaCrisis #AAterrorist #Rohingya pic.twitter.com/4tIqnieqdP

— Misbahur Rahman (@rayyan_misbahur) August 6, 2024

According to a report in Arakan Express News, the AA has been “in control” of Maungdaw since early yesterday morning. (The AA has not yet announced the seizure of the town.) It, too, stated that “at least 150 Rohingya civilians were killed and over 500 were injured” during the battle for the town, and that the AA “has dropped drone bombs and sank the boats of Rohingya civilians trying to cross towards Bangladesh.”

The AFP news agency reported that a boat carrying 29 Rohingya civilians sank in the Naf River yesterday, resulting in at least 10 drownings, but did not state what caused the sinking.

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The AA has been battling for control of Maungdaw for several months, after overrunning the neighboring township of Buthidaung in May. On August 2, The Irrawaddy reported that the AA was concentrating its fire on the last junta battalion defending the town. On the 5th, Narinjara News reported that AA soldiers were reported to have entered the town, where they were engaging in gunfights with the military.

The report also stated that the AA was attacking fleeing junta soldiers with drones, while the Myanmar Air Force responded with air strikes.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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