Drone attacks on Rohingya fleeing Myanmar have killed dozens, including families with children. Witnesses said survivors were forced to sift through piles of bodies to find and identify their dead or wounded relatives.
Four witnesses, activists and a diplomat described Monday's drone strike that hit families waiting to cross the border into neighboring Bangladesh.
A heavily pregnant woman and her 2-year-old daughter were among the victims of the latest deadly attack in Rakhine state, the deadliest on civilians in the region in weeks amid fighting between junta forces and rebels.
Three eyewitnesses told Reuters on Friday that the Arakan Army was responsible, although the group denied the accusation. The militia and Myanmar's military have blamed each other for the incident. Reuters has not been able to verify the death toll or independently determine who was responsible.
Videos posted on social media showed piles of bodies strewn across the mud, with suitcases and backpacks scattered around them. Three survivors reported more than 200 people were killed, while one witness said he saw at least 70 bodies.
Reuters managed to confirm the location of the video was outside the coastal town of Maungdaw, Myanmar. However, Reuters can't confirm the date the video was taken.
Mohammed Eleyas, a 35-year-old eyewitness, said his pregnant wife and 2-year-old daughter were injured in the attack and later died. Eleyas, who was standing with them on the shoreline when the drones began attacking the crowd, gave his account to Reuters from a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
“I heard several very loud gunshots,” he said. Eleyas said he lay on the ground to protect himself, and when he woke up, he saw his wife and daughter badly injured and many of his relatives dead.
A second witness, Shamsuddin (28), reported that he survived with his wife and newborn son. Speaking from a refugee camp in Bangladesh, he said that after the attack, many were killed and “some were screaming in pain from their injuries.”
A boat carrying Rohingya refugees, members of a Muslim minority that has faced severe persecution in Myanmar, also sank in the Naf River that separates the two countries on Monday, killing dozens of others, according to two witnesses and Bangladeshi media.
Doctors Without Borders (Doctors Without Borders) said in a statement that it was treating 39 people who crossed the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh since Saturday for injuries from violence, including mortar and gunfire. The statement also said patients described seeing people being bombed as they tried to find boats to cross the river.
The Rohingya have long been victims of persecution in Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country. In 2017, more than 730,000 Rohingya were forced to flee Myanmar after a military crackdown that the UN has deemed to be genocidal.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted the democratically elected government in 2021, with mass protests later turning into a full-blown armed conflict.
Rohingya have been fleeing Rakhine for weeks as the Arakan Army, one of the armed groups involved in the conflict, has made significant advances in the northern region which has a large Muslim population. (ah)
