BANGKOK: At least 150 civilians from Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority community may have been killed this week in an artillery and drone attack in the western state of Rakhine that survivors suspect was carried out by a major force in the resistance to the military rule.
The Arakan Army, the military wing of the state’s Rakhine ethnic group, denied the responsibility for the assault on Rohingyas trying to flee fierce fighting in Maungdaw town by crossing the Naf river into Bangladesh.
According to an international medical assistance group, Doctors Without Borders, in the past week, the practioners have been treating increasing numbers of Rohingyas with violence-related injuries. The statement further read, “Some patients saw people being bombed while trying to find boats to cross the river into Bangladesh and escape the violence. Others described seeing hundreds of dead bodies on the riverbanks.”
Two self-described survivors blamed the Arakan Army, as did Rohingya activists, and Myanmar’s military government. The attack, if confirmed, would be one of the deadliest involving civilians in the country’s civil war. Gruesome videos circulating on social media purport to show dozens of bodies of adults and children strewn along a road near the riverside. Neither the video nor details of the attack can be easily verified due to tight restrictions on travel and ongoing combat in the area.
Pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armed forces have been attempting to oust the country’s military rulers since they seized power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.