COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh — They clung on through years of conflict in Myanmar , but a surge in fighting has driven tens of thousands more Rohingya to flee, escaping with little more than harrowing tales of war. 'I saw countless dead bodies,' said 50-year-old refugee Hasina, recounting her traumatic journey to neighboring Bangladesh .
She has joined around a million members from her stateless and persecuted Muslim minority, who have already been eking out an existence in sprawling refugee camps in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh since escaping violence in 2017. Fighting has battered Myanmar's Rakhine state since Arakan Army (AA) rebels attacked the junta's security forces in November 2023. When AA forces — ethnic guerrillas wanting their own territory — seized Maungdaw district in early December, Hasina fled. A shell landed just outside her home, killing her neighbors, including two children. 'After the bombing, the Arakan Army stormed my house and took everything I had,' said Hasina, who asked to use only one name, fearful of being identified. 'I am a widow and childless, but there wasn't even enough food to feed a single mouth in my house.' The United Nations has warned of the risk of famine in Rakhine. 'Intense and incessant' Myanmar has been in turmoil since a military coup toppled Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government on Feb. 1, 2021. But the Rohingya endured decades of discrimination in Myanmar, where successive governments classified them as illegal immigrants. Yet many Rohingya remained until the escalation of fighting this year created a new surge of refugees. 'The battle spread from village to village.... The bombing was so intense and incessant that the ground trembled for days,' said Mohammad Yasin, a Rohingya boatman who had reached the Teknaf port in Bangladesh. 'Many people were killed.' Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus, who is heading the interim government, estimates some 80,000 Rohingya have arrived in his country in the latest fighting, without giving an exact timeframe
ROHINGYA MYANMAR CONFLICT REFUGEES BANGLADESH
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