The reported attack, estimated to have killed about 150 people, would be one of the deadliest incidents involving civilians in the country's ongoing civil war.
About 150 civilians are estimated to have been killed in an attack on Monday witnesses said they believed was carried out by a force resisting military rule in Myanmar .
One witness estimated the attack, which took place in the western state of Rakhine and reportedly involved drones and artillery, killed about 150 civilians as they tried to cross the Naf River into neighbouring Bangladesh. A statement issued on Friday by Doctors Without Borders said that in the past week, it had been treating increasing numbers of Rohingya people with violence-related injuries who had managed to cross the border into Bangladesh.
However, the fighting in Rakhine has raised fears of a revival of organised violence against members of the Rohingya minority. The Arakan Army was accused of forcing Buthidaung's estimated 200,000 residents, largely Rohingya, to leave, and then setting fire to most of the buildings there. Following the drone attack, about 20 artillery shells also hit the crowd, he said, and he estimated that about 150 people, including children and women, were killed in total.
He and just four family members managed to cross into Bangladesh, while eight others were missing in the aftermath of Tuesday's violence. "More than 40 per cent were women and children, and many had mortar shell injuries and gunshot wounds," it said, noting that the numbers peaked on Tuesday, when 21 wounded people were treated.
Myanmar Rakhine State Arakan Army Military Junta Rohingya Muslims Civilian Deaths Doctors Without Borders
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