150,000 displaced following seizure of Myanmar's Buthidaung town by rebels: Rights group

By Aamir Latif

ANKARA (AA)- The reported seizure of Buthiduang town of Myanmar's Rakhine state by the rebel ethnic Arakan Army (AA) has triggered a fresh exodus, displacing 150,000 Rohingya Muslims, a Rohingya rights group said on Sunday.

On Saturday, the rebel group claimed that took complete control of Buthidaung township, home to the ethnic Rohingya population, near the Bangladesh border after the regime’s Strategic Military Command in the northern Rakhine State town fell.

The group said it seized four Light Infantry Battalion headquarters and two border guard bases in the township this week amid continued clashes outside Buthidaung town with the rebels chasing "retreating" junta soldiers.

Buthidaung has the largest Rohingya population since the massive wave of violence against the Rohingya in 2017 by the Myanmar army.

"On May 17, the (Arakan Army) ordered the Rohingya in downtown Buthidaung to leave the town no later than May 18 at 10 am. When the Rohingya refused to leave, they set fire to the entire downtown area at 9:30 pm, not even waiting until their own deadline," according to Free Rohingya Coalition, a global network of Rohingya activists who share common concerns about Myanmar’s human rights violations.

As of now, more than 150,000 people have become homeless and need urgent humanitarian intervention, Nay San Lwin, the coalition's co-founder, told Anadolu.

The displaced residents, according to him, are still inside the township with many fleeing to rural areas.

Some are on the road and in paddy fields, he added.

They were trying to flee to Maungdaw township, which borders Bangladesh. However, they were not allowed by the Arakan Army to flee to Maungdaw, he went on to say.

"All their crimes against the Rohingya must be investigated, and they must be held accountable," Nay said.

Some 600,000 members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group remain in the state, while more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women, and children, fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.

They have been residing in congested refugee camps in Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar.

The Arakan Army suspended a cease-fire agreement in November that had been in place since the February 2021 military coup d’etat.