At least 65,000 Rohingya Muslims flee from Myanmar to Bangladesh: UN

At least 65,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled persecution and violence in Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh since the army launched a crackdown in the northwestern Rakhine State early October, the United Nations says.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its weekly report on Monday that 22,000 Rohingya had fled Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh over the past week.

“Over the past week, 22,000 new arrivals were reported to have crossed the border from Rakhine state,” the UN relief agency said, adding, “As of 5 January, an estimated 65,000 people are residing in registered camps, makeshift settlements and host communities” in Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh.

The latest figure marks a sharp escalation in the numbers fleeing a military campaign.

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims are living in Bangladesh, with the vast majority of them having taken refuge in makeshift settlements, official refugee camps and villages in Bangladesh’s resort district of Cox’s Bazar.

Many of those interviewed by journalists have told horrific stories of gang-rape, torture and murder at the hands of Myanmar’s government forces.

Meanwhile, a United Nations (UN) special envoy has arrived in Myanmar to begin an investigation into the brutal and deadly military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in the country.