COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh
After a few days of calm, fierce gunfire began Sunday between Myanmar’s military and the country’s insurgent force, the Rakhine Army, across the border from neighboring Bangladesh, according to a Rohingya leader and residents.
“There were intense gunfire all night and we couldn’t sleep anything out of fear,” Mohammad Azizul Haq Rana, a resident of Bangladesh’s Ghumdum border domain in Bandarman district, told Anadolu Agency.
According to official records and media reports, in the past two months, at least two Rohingya have been killed and nearly a dozen more, in addition to Bangladeshis, injured by mortar fire fired by Myanmar forces from across the border.
Since August 2017, nearly 4,500 Rohingya have been living in makeshift tents in the no man’s land of Tambru, along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
A leader of the Rohingya network in the camp told Anadolu Agency on Monday morning that a young Rohingya was killed and 3 others wounded in Monday’s fighting.
“Residents of Maungdaw commune, Rakhine State, reported that a fierce war is raging between the Military Council and the Arakan Army in Sector Four of Maungdaw commune in the north from 01:30 (19:00 GMT) today, October 10. ” the Rohingya leader said. Anonymity, he says.
He said a 37-year-old Rohingya man, Seraz Uddin, was killed while 3 members of his circle of relatives were seriously injured in a cross-border shooting in northern Maungdaw township.
Rohingya families in the domain have moved to safer locations nearby amid escalating gun clashes.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Bangladesh Border Guard Cox’s Bazar commander Col. Mehedi Hossain Kabir said they had stepped up security measures at the border and had already sent messages to Myanmar’s border police saying their internal war does not deserve Bangladesh.
“We have warned Myanmar forces that they are opposed to firing mortar shells or bullets across the border into Bangladesh,” Kabir said, adding that the forces are on alert for any additional influx of refugees due to the latest fighting.