Rohingya exodus nears 3,00,000

Nearly 3,00,000 Rohingya have fled violence churning through Rakhine state into Bangladesh, the United Nations said on Saturday, as Myanmar’s government for the first time offered humanitarian aid to members of the Muslim minority still inside the country.

The UN braced for a further surge of arrivals in Bangladesh with tens of thousands more believed to be displaced in Rakhine, fleeing burning villages, the army and ethnic Rakhine mobs — who Rohingya refugees accuse of attacking civilians.

Myanmar denies the allegations, instead saying the Rohingya militants who sparked the crisis with deadly attacks on police posts on August 25 have spread fear by killing civilians and torching thousands of homes.

Exhausted, wounded and traumatised Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh each day since violence erupted, with the young and old carried over hills and muddy fields in days-long treks or after treacherous boat journeys.

Bangladeshi authorities are planning to build a camp that could house a quarter of a million people. But they have also urged Myanmar to stem the exodus by providing “safe zones” for the Rohingya inside Rakhine.

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi security forces were on alert for attempts by homegrown Islamist militants to use the violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar to recruit new fighters, a top official said on Saturday.

Monirul Islam, the head of Dhaka’s police counter-terrorism unit, said forces were on the lookout for any efforts to use the violence against Rohingyas to rally homegrown extremists.