Bangladesh evacuating diplomats from Myanmar's conflict-hit Rakhine State

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Bangladesh is evacuating its diplomats from Myanmar's Rakhine State amid intense clashes between the country’s military and armed rebels.

“The process of evacuating the diplomats of the Bangladesh Consulate from Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, is underway,” Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud told reporters in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka.

Fighting between the Myanmar military and at least three armed groups has persisted since last October, resulting in killings and displacements as well as damage to infrastructure.

Rakhine is home to the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority group, hundreds of thousands of which have fled persecution, including over a million into Bangladesh.

The fresh clashes have forced more Rohingya as well as Myanmar soldiers and their families to flee to Bangladesh, but Dhaka has closed the border.

Mahmud said the diplomatic staff were being moved out “for safety reasons amid the conflict in Rakhine State”

Dhaka’s announcement comes as several hundred Rohingya have gathered along the Bangladesh border in search of safe refuge in the country’s southeastern Cox’s Bazar district.

However, Bangladesh has refused to budge.

“There are already over a million Rohingya taking shelter in Bangladesh,” Mahmud said.

“Is it possible for us to give shelter to more Rohingya?

"This influx has already caused various problems, including environmental problems and drug problems certainly in Cox’s Bazar region," he added.

The Border Guard Bangladesh and other security forces are on maximum alert to prevent any fresh influx from Myanmar.

Over a hundred Rohingya have already crossed Bangladesh and taken refuge in the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, where 1.2 million Muslims from Myanmar have already been living since August 2017.

On the Myanmar security forces who fled into Bangladesh, Mahmud said a ship from Myanmar "would reach Bangladesh to take them back."

Myanmar has been under junta rule since February 2021, and the military, locally known as the Tatmadaw, has faced severe resistance from ethnic groups in many regions of the country.

At least three ethnic armed groups, which united under the “Brotherhood Alliance” have been fighting the junta regime since late October to take control of the northern parts of Myanmar.

The groups are attacking junta forces, which rule the Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian nation, capturing many towns and junta outposts.

Many people have been reported killed during the attacks.