The outbreak of violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority has reportedly killed thousands more people than the government admits.
At least 9,000 Rohingya died in Myanmar from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24, Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins sans frontieres, said Thursday. That’s 22.5 times the official government estimate of 400 deaths.
Most of the deaths in that month-long period ― 6,700 ― were from violence, the group said, citing surveys it conducted with survivors in refugee resettlement camps in Bangladesh. The toll includes at least 730 children younger than 5. Causes include gunfire, arson and beatings.
Survivors have told aid workers of seeing dozens of Rohingya villagers beaten, sexually assaulted, stabbed, and summarily executed, and said entire villages have been burned to the ground.
Hala Sadak, 15, told Human Rights Watch last month that 10 soldiers dragged her from her home and raped her. “They left me where I was … when my brother and sister came to get me, I was lying there on the ground, they thought I was dead.”
(Photo: Susana Vera / Reuters)
Almost 650,000 people have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since the end of August. MSF said its survey shows that the Rohingya people “have been targeted” by “clearance operations” launched by the Myanmar military, police, and local militias.
“What we uncovered was staggering, both in terms of the numbers of people who reported a family member died as a result of violence, and the horrific ways in which they said they were killed or severely injured,” Sidney Wong, MSF’s medical director, said in a statement. “The peak in deaths coincides with the launch of the latest ‘clearance operations’ by Myanmar security forces in the last week of August.”
Human rights groups and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have called the death and destruction a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Last month, Bangladesh and Myanmar entered discussions about a repatriation deal that would send Rohingyas back to the country’s Rakhine State. Meanwhile, Bangladeshi authorities are moving forward with plans to construct a new refugee camp, possibly anticipating more people fleeing extended conflict in Myanmar.
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An exhausted Rohingya refugee woman touches the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal, in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesd, on Sept. 11, 2017.
Rohingya Muslim refugees disembark from a boat on the Bangladeshi side of Naf river in Teknaf on Sept. 13, 2017.
Recently arrived Rohingya refugees wait to receive aid donations on Sept. 13, 2017, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
Exhausted Rohingya refugees rest on the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, on Sept. 10, 2017.
Rohingya refugees reach out their hands to grab aid packages in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 17, 2017.
Rokeya Begum, 23, holds her 4-day-old twins born in a makeshift tent on Sept. 17, 2017, in Kutupalong, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
Rohingyas are seen after arriving by boat on Sept. 14, 2017, in Shah Porir Dip, Bangladesh.
Rohingya refugee children carry an old woman in a sling near the Balukhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 13, 2017.
This photograph taken on Sept. 12, 2017, shows Rohingya refugees arriving by boat at Shah Parir Dwip on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River after fleeing violence in Myanmar.
A Rohingya Muslim woman gets off a boat after crossing over from Myanmar into the Bangladesh side of the border, in Shah Porir Dwip near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on Sept. 13, 2017. Rohingya Muslims pay local fishers 36 U.S. dollars in order to cross to Shah Porir Dwip peninsula.
A Rohingya refugee girl sits next to her mother who rests after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Sept. 6, 2017.
A Rohingya refugee man pulls a child as they walk to the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, on Sept. 10, 2017.
Rohingya Muslim refugees build temporary makeshift shelters, after crossing the border from Myanmar, in the Bangladeshi town of Teknaf on Sept. 10, 2017.
Rohingya refugee people take part in Eid al-Adha prayer near the Kutupalang makeshift refugee camp, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 2, 2017.
Rohingya refugees climb up a hill after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 8, 2017.
A Rohingya refugee boy stands in a queue to receive relief supplies given by local people in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 16, 2017.
A Rohingya refugee carries a child through a paddy field after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Sept. 6, 2017.
A local man carries an old Rohingya refugee woman as she is unable to walk after crossing the border, in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Sept. 1, 2017.
A Rohingya refugee boy walks in the water after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Sept. 1, 2017.
Rohingya refugees stands in an open place during heavy rain, as they are held by Border Guard Bangladesh after illegally crossing the border, in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Aug. 31, 2017.
Rohingya refugees stretch their hands to receive aid distributed by local organizations at Balukhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 14, 2017.
Rohingya refugees walk on a muddy path at Thaingkhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 14, 2017.
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