Catholic aid agency urges action as violence grows against Rohingya civilians
A leading Catholic international aid agency says escalating violence is forcing more of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to flee to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where camps are already overwhelmed.
According to the BBC, bombs attacked unarmed Rohingya people on Aug. 5 near the banks of the Naf River in the town of Maungdaw.
Survivors told the British broadcaster most of the bombs fell from drones, but some were from mortars and guns were also used.
Videos analyzed by BBC Verify show the riverbank covered in bloodied bodies, many of them women and children.
Eyewitnesses say that up to 200 people were killed in the attack.
Survivors told the BBC they were attacked by the Arakan Army, one of the strongest insurgent groups in Myanmar, which controls much of the country’s Rakhine State.
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The survivors said they were first attacked in their villages, forcing them to flee, and then were attacked again by the riverbank as they sought to escape.
The Arakan Army declined to be interviewed by the BBC but its spokesman Khaing Tukha denied the accusation and responded to the British news organization’s questions with a statement which said “the incident did not occur in areas controlled by us.”
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority living in the Buddhist-majority state, and have long faced oppression.
Most of the Rohingya at the Bangladesh camps have arrived from Myanmar since August 2017, when the military began conducting clearance operations after a series of rebel attacks in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. The Rohingya are Muslims and have long faced discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, including being denied citizenship since 1982.
The military coup in Myanmar in February 2021 further heightened their vulnerability.
The population density of the camps is staggering: About 103,600 per square mile, more than 40 times the average population density in Bangladesh as a whole – and it is one of the most crowded countries on earth.
Refugees live in side-by-side plastic huts, each just a little larger than 100 square feet, and some holding a dozen residents.
Doctors Without Borders issued a statement last week saying its helpers had treated an unusually large number of Rohingya with war-related injuries who had fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh after the reported attack.
“Considering the rise in the number of wounded Rohingya patients crossing from Myanmar in recent days, and the nature of the injuries our teams are treating, we are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of the conflict on Rohingya people,” said Orla Murphy, MSF’s country representative in Bangladesh.
“It is clear that safe space for civilians in Myanmar is shrinking more each day, with people caught up in the ongoing fighting and forced to make perilous journeys to Bangladesh to seek safety,” she added.
CAFOD – the official international aid agency sponsored by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales – has long helped the refugees in Cox’s Bazar
Phil Talman, CAFOD’s Program Coordinator for Bangladesh, expressed deep concern over the rising violence against Rohingya civilians along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.
“With support from CAFOD, Caritas Bangladesh is providing essential services including water and sanitation, nutrition, shelter, protection and some primary health care for pregnant mothers and children – but the needs are immense. Nearly one million refugees are now in Bangladesh, and international funding is falling short,” he said.
“The 2024 joint response plan is only 35 percent funded, leaving a $554 million gap. This funding shortfall is causing severe hunger and frustration in the camps, placing an unfair burden on Bangladesh. We call on the international community to urgently provide sustainable support until safe return is possible,” Talman said.
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