(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "At least 20 people (both Rakhine and Muslim) have been killed in clashes since October 21. The death toll can reach about 50," Rakhine state spokesman Myo Thant said on Thursday.
Thant also said that several people were injured during the recent clash which broke out between extremist Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the country’s western state.
Meanwhile, UN chief in Yangon Ashok Nigam voiced concern on Thursday over recent reports of killings and displacement of minority Muslims following a new round of violence against Rohingyas.
"The UN is alarmed by reports of displacements and destruction," Nigam said, adding the violence in the Rakhine state “has resulted in deaths and has forced thousands of people, including women and children, to flee their homes.”
Tensions have heightened across Rakhine, forcing Muslim people to flee to emergency camps located in Rakhine’s capital Sittwe.
The Buddhist-majority government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas and has classified them as illegal migrants, even though the Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origins, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.
Reports say more than hundreds of Rohingyas have been killed in Rakhine over the past few months.
Rohingya women prepare food outside their tents at the Dabang Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Myanmar's western Rakhine state.
End item/ 149
