At least 6,000 Rohingya civilians fleeing renewed violence in Myanmar are stranded near the border with Bangladesh which is blocking their entry, a senior Bangladeshi official said on Tuesday, as the United Nations urged Dhaka to let them in.
Bangladesh has barred thousands of civilians from the stateless Muslim minority from entering the country since Friday, when fresh fighting broke out between Myanmar’s security forces and Rohingya militants in neighbouring Rakhine state leaving at least 110 people dead.
The UN refugee agency has said some 5,200 people have managed to cross into Bangladesh in the past three days. But the majority have been stopped at the border despite heavy fighting in nearby villages, even coming under fire on Saturday as they huddled along the ‘zero line’ which marks the northernmost part of the border. “Around 6,000 Myanmar nationals have gathered on the border and are trying to enter Bangladesh,” a senior Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) official told AFP, referring to the Rohingya.