UN: 87,000 Rohingya Displaced in Myanmar

At least 87,000 people have been displaced since the military launched a crackdown in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state early October, United Nations said on Monday.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a weekly report that at least 21,000 people are estimated to be internally displaced in the northern part of Rakhine State as a result of the October 9 attacks and security operations, Anadolu News reported.

“This is in addition to the 66,000 people estimated to have crossed into Bangladesh,” the UN relief agency said.

“Although humanitarian activities have been able to resume in many areas of northern Rakhine, the government is still not permitting international staff to travel outside the main centers.”

Since October 9, aid agencies and independent journalists have been denied access to majority Rohingya areas and at least 104 people—17 police and soldiers, 11 Muslim men working closely with the local authorities and 76 alleged “attackers”, including six who reportedly died during interrogation—have been killed and more than 600 people arrested.

However, Rohingya advocacy groups claim around 400 Rohingya—described by the UN as among the world’s most persecuted groups—were killed in military operations, women were raped and more than 1,000 Rohingya villages torched.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, on Friday said the armed insurgency in Rakhine state was due to the decades of institutionalized discrimination against the Rohingya.