About 30 members of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority have been killed in clashes between junta forces and ethnic minority Buddhist insurgents, residents of Rakhine State said on Saturday, raising new fears that the persecuted Muslim community is being caught in the middle of increasingly bitter fighting.
Twelve Rohingya civilians were killed in junta airstrikes targeting fighters from the Arakan Army, or AA, in Buthidaung township on Friday. Later in the day, the Arakan Army bombed a school where Rohingyas were sheltering with drones, killing 18 of them, residents said.
About 200 people were wounded, a Buthidaung Rohingya resident who identified himself as Khin Zaw Moe told RFA.
“People are scared. The casualties may be even higher,” he said. “The exact number is not known due to the difficulty in communicating.”
Rohingyas from about 20 villages were sheltering in the high school when it was attacked, he said. It was not clear why the Arakan Army bombed the school.
RFA tried to telephone the AA spokesman, Khaing Thukha, and the junta’s Rakhine State spokesperson, Hla Thein, but could not get through to either of them.
The AA, who are battling the junta for self-determination of the Buddhist ethnic Arakan community in the state, said in a statement on Saturday its forces had captured all junta bases in Buthidaung. It did not mention Rohingya civilians.
Rohingya, who have been persecuted for decades in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, are getting caught up in the war between the AA and junta forces, human rights workers say. Both sides have pressed Rohingya into their ranks and at the same time have accused Rohingya of helping their rivals. Both the AA and junta forces subjected members of the Muslim minority to violence, residents and rights workers say.
More than 700,000 Rohingya fled from a Myanmar military crackdown in 2017, in response to a series of attacks on the security forces by Rohingya insurgents. Most of those refugees are sheltering in camps in southeast Bangladesh, where they joined hundreds of thousands who fled earlier abuses.
More than half a million Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, many of them in camps for the internally displaced. Rohingya activists estimate the Rohingya population of Buthidaung to be around 200,000.
Junta torch over 300 homes, kill 2 locals in Magway
Mizzima News reports: A Myanmar junta column burned over 300 residential houses in Gangaw town, Magway Region, and killed two local people, including a child, according to Yaw Defense force (YDF) and local residents.
In Shwe Bo village, the junta troops shot and killed U Thar Nwe, an 80-year-old man who was unable to leave his home due to impaired vision, and the charred body of a nine-year-old child was also discovered, according to a villager.
On 16 May, at around 10:30 am, a joint column of about 250 junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee militia members entered Yay Thar and Shwe Bo villages, destroying houses, said a YDF official.
“They started by setting fire to Yay Thar village, which had fewer homes. Then, they set fire to Shwe Bo village,” the official said.
According to Ko Ba Kaung, a Yaw local, more than 300 houses were burned in Shwe Bo village and 14 houses were set on fire in Yay Thar village.
Ko Ba Kaung continued, stating that the junta column had captured seven monks as hostages and set fire to a hall within the Shwe Bo village monastery grounds, only to release them on 17 May.
According to the YDF, the junta column is currently making its way back to the junta-backed Pyu Saw Htee stronghold village of Myauk Khin Yan.
The locals claim that this is the third time Pyu Saw Htee militiamen from Myauk Khin Yan village had set fire to Shwe Bo village, which is one of the nearest villages to Myauk Khin Yan village.
On 7 November, 2023, two YDF resistance members were taken into custody by junta forces and Pyu Saw Htee militias stationed in Myauk Khin Yan village. They were then publicly burnt alive.
