Thousands of Rohingya flee to Bangladesh amid violence in Myanmar
Around 8,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh in recent months, escaping escalating violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, according to Bangladeshi officials.
The violence has intensified due to ongoing clashes between Myanmar's ruling junta and the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic militia largely composed of members from the Buddhist majority.
'We have reports that around 8,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh recently, primarily over the last two months,' stated Mohammad Shamsud Douza, a senior official overseeing refugees for the Bangladeshi government.
'Bangladesh is already overwhelmed and cannot accommodate any more Rohingya,' he informed the media on Wednesday.
To address the growing crisis, the government plans to hold a 'serious discussion at the cabinet' within the next two to three days, according to Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, who spoke to reporters late on Tuesday.
While expressing sympathy for the Rohingya, Hossain emphasized that the country no longer has the capacity to provide humanitarian shelter to additional refugees.
On August 25, tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh held rallies in camps to mark the seventh anniversary of the 2017 military crackdown that forced them to flee Myanmar. During the rallies, they demanded an end to the violence and a safe return to their homeland.
Currently, over one million Rohingya reside in overcrowded camps in southern Bangladesh.
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