More than a quarter of a million Rohingya refugees have flooded into Bangladesh in just two weeks, fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.
William Spindler, a UN High Commission for Refugees senior communications officer in Geneva, said 270,000 had crossed the border since August 25, a large increase over earlier figures.
The latest numbers come after a more detailed assessment by officials as the agency and its partners searched different areas along the border.
It means an average of 18,000 Rohingya have crossed the border every day since clashes between the military and Rohingya militants intensified.
Spindler added that a large number of people have arrived in the past few days.
The new numbers could mean roughly of a third of the country’s Rohingya people, a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar, have left Rakhine state, although the Myanmar government doesn’t release exact population figures.
The Rohingya are considered to be among the world’s most persecuted people — with predominantly Buddhist Myanmar saying they are Bangladeshi and Bangladesh saying they’re Burmese.
The government of Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, blames terrorists for starting the violence.
Rohingya militants killed 12 security officers in border post attacks almost two weeks ago, according to state media, intensifying the latest crackdown.
Children, women drown fleeing
Not all of the refugees are making it to Bangladesh safely.
Dozens of Rohingya women and children fleeing the violence have drowned while attempting to escape to Bangladesh by boat.
A Bangladeshi border guard, who asked not to be identified, told CNN guards had retrieved eight bodies on the Bangladeshi side of the Naf River on Wednesday alone, half of whom were children.
“It was a case of a boat capsizing,” he said. ” (But) this has been happening from day one … Since then, around 60 to 65 bodies have arrived south (of the border area.) In other areas, maybe 10 to 15.
