As ethnic armed group claims to have captured a town in western Myanmar, Muslim Rohingyas flee again
Hindustan TimesBANGKOK — A powerful ethnic armed group fighting Myanmar’s military government in the country’s western state of Rakhine claimed Saturday to have seized a town near the border with Bangladesh, marking the latest in a series of victories for foes of the country’s military government. As ethnic armed group claims to have captured a town in western Myanmar, Muslim Rohingyas flee again Members of the state’s Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority, targets of deadly army-directed violence in 2017, appear to have been the main victims of fighting in the town of Buthidaung, where the Arakan Army claims to have chased out forces of the military government. Nay San Lwin, a co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition group based outside of Myanmar, said in a Friday email to the that the Arakan Army had warned Buthidaung’s Rohingya residents to evacuate the town by 10 a.m. on Saturday, and that more than 200,000 Rohingya seeking refuge there in houses, government buildings, a hospital, and schools, were in an extremely dangerous situation. ‘War has rules.’” The Arakan Army’s Khaing Thukha described the allegations his group was responsible were baseless, claiming the houses caught fire due to the airstrikes by the military government.