Tag: Rohingya

UPDATED: Bangladesh, Myanmar to start Rohingya return in two months

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to start repatriating Rohingya refugees in two months, Dhaka said Thursday, as global pressure mounts over the refugee crisis. More than 620,000 Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh since August, running from a Myanmar military crackdown that Washington said this week clearly constitutes “ethnic cleansing.” After weeks of tussling over the terms of repatriation, the two sides inked a deal in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw on Thursday following talks between Myanmar’s […]

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Amnesty accuses Myanmar of imposing ‘apartheid’ on Rohingya

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s suffocating controls over its Rohingya population amount to “apartheid”, Amnesty International said Tuesday in a probe into the root causes of a crisis that has sent 620,000 refugees fleeing to Bangladesh. Scenes of dispossessed Rohingya in Bangladeshi camps have provoked outrage around the world, as people who have escaped Rakhine state since August recount tales of murder, rape and arson at the hands of Myanmar troops. Myanmar and Bangladesh have […]

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Rohingya can return only if Myanmar’s ‘real citizens’ accept: army

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Rohingya refugees cannot return to Rakhine state until “real Myanmar citizens” are ready to accept them, the country’s army chief said Thursday, casting doubt over government pledges to begin repatriating the persecuted Muslim minority. More than 600,000 Rohingya are languishing in Bangladeshi refugee camps after fleeing a brutal Myanmar army campaign launched in late August. The UN says the scorched-earth operation, which has left hundreds of villages burned to ash in […]

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Tillerson in Myanmar to press Suu Kyi and army on Rohingya

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (AFP) — Washington’s top diplomat arrived in Myanmar Wednesday to press civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s powerful army chief over violence-torn Rakhine state, where troops are accused of atrocities against Rohingya Muslims. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s one-day stop in the capital Naypyidaw comes as global outrage builds over an army crackdown that has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya out of the mainly Buddhist country since late August. While […]

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Myanmar’s Suu Kyi meets Tillerson, UN chief on Rohingya crisis

  by Ayee Macaraig Agence France Presse Manila, Philippines (AFP) — Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced rising global pressure Tuesday to solve the crisis for her nation’s displaced Rohingya Muslim minority, meeting the UN chief and America’s top diplomat in the Philippines. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Nobel laureate that hundreds of thousands of displaced Muslims who had fled to Bangladesh should be allowed to return to their homes in Myanmar. […]

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Tillerson to deliver warning in Myanmar over Rohingya crisis

by Francesco Fontemaggi Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — In the face of widespread “atrocities” against ethnic Rohingya people in Myanmar, the United States has been cautiously stepping up pressure on that country’s army, while taking care to avoid endangering the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi. As the US takes a more active role in the region — several American delegations have passed through in recent weeks — Secretary of State […]

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Childhoods lost as Rohingya kids fill parents’ shoes

by Sam Jahan Agence France Presse BALUKHALI, Bangladesh (AFP) — Tahera Begum walks a mile alone at dawn to collect firewood for her ill parents and four siblings, an enormous burden for a 10-year-old thrust to the head of her family in the world’s largest refugee settlement. “I do it because no one else in my family can. Both my parents are sick. They cannot move without assistance,” the Rohingya girl told AFP while chopping […]

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UN turns up pressure on Myanmar over Rohingya crisis

by Carole Landry Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The UN Security Council on Monday called on Myanmar to rein in its military campaign in Rakhine state and allow hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya driven from their homes to return. In a unanimous statement backed by China, the council strongly condemned the violence that has forced more than 600,000 Rohingya to flee across the border to Bangladesh. The council expressed “grave concern” over human […]

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Clowns bring laughter to traumatized Rohingya children

  By Shafiqul Alam Agence France Presse KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh (AFP) — The Rohingya boys and girls shrieked with delight as the clowns juggled hoops and somersaulted, their red-nosed antics provoking a sound rarely heard in the world’s largest refugee camp — children’s laughter. The clowns have been providing much-needed levity in the crowded Bangladesh camps, where hundreds of thousands of traumatised Rohingya children spend long days in bleak and difficult conditions. Mohammad Noor lives with […]

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Rohingya faces tell the agony of Myanmar exodus

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AFP) – The lines on their foreheads tell more than the forced smiles on the faces of the Rohingya refugees photographed by AFP for a special series. All are among nearly one million of the stateless Muslim group now crowded into camps in Bangladesh after fleeing a military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar. More than 600,000 have arrived in the past two months alone. Many are emaciated. Some carry the trauma of attacks […]

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UNICEF helps Rohingya children study in Bangladesh camps

COX’S BAZAAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) offers Rohingya children education opportunities in hundreds of schools set up within the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. With 37 children in each class, educators teach Burmese, English and maths in the hopes the pupils are able secure a bright future and earn a living, a UNICEF spokesperson said on Tuesday (October 24) Nearly 340,000 Rohingya children are living in squalid conditions […]

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Rohingya fleeing Myanmar say army redoubling push to clear villages

  SHAH PORIR DWIP, Bangladesh (AFP) — Rohingya refugees arriving in Bangladesh amid a fresh exodus from strife-torn Myanmar have described whole villages being emptied and thousands marching to the border as security forces redouble efforts to drive the remaining Muslims from their homes. More than 500,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled ethnic bloodshed in Myanmar in the past month and numbers are again swelling, with Bangladesh reporting 4-5,000 civilians now crossing the border each day after a brief […]

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