Bangladeshi authorities have reportedly evacuated Muslim people displaced by armed clashes near Taung Pyo Let Yar village in Bindrabin District to Kutupalong refugee camp.
During the clashes between the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) near the border on 17 and 18 January, refugee homes on the border were set on fire, forcing refugees to take shelter in a school in Taung Pyo Let Yar village.
“The refugee camp is located in the territory of Bangladesh. It was set on fire during the fighting. So, the refugees had to take shelter in Taung Pyo Let Yar school. I heard that thousands of people are there,” said a resident of the village on the Myanmar side.
Bangladeshi Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, Md Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, therefore provided assistance in evacuating the refugees to Kutupalong camp.
Out of 2,429 Muslims (448 families), 1,516 people (279 families) were transported in five vehicles on 14 February and 913 people (209 families) were transported in eight vehicles on 15 February, the junta’s Rakhine Daily News reported.
Another resident of Taung Pyo Let Wae said, “I heard that they are being taken to the refugee camps in Bangladesh. None of them have come to our side. We heard that they are still being sent to the camps there.”
International organisations claim these people are the more than 700,000 Muslims who fled to Bangladesh as a result of the Myanmar army’s “area clearance operation” after the ARSA attacked police outposts in the Maundaw area in 2017.
Sent by DMG.