5 months ago
28
COX'S BAZAR: At least three
Rohingya refugees
were killed, and seven others injured following a
clash
between rival militant groups struggling for control over relief camps in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh shelters one million members of the stateless and persecuted Muslim community, the majority of whom arrived after a severe military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
Most of these refugees live in vast, crowded camps. This year, there has been an increase in skirmishes between armed groups, partly due to the forced recruitment of refugees into Myanmar's civil war.
On Monday, at least 100 members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (
ARSA
) attacked a group of refugees conducting a security patrol in a camp located in Cox's Bazar district, according to police.
"They cut barbed-wire fence surrounding the camp and launched the attack on Rohingyas who were protecting the camp," said Mohammad Iqbal, a commanding officer of the Armed Police Battalion, which is tasked with maintaining security in the camps.
"Three Rohingyas were killed and seven were injured. When police came to the spot, ARSA members also attacked police," he told AFP, adding that the victims had been variously shot and attacked with knives.
A Rohingya community leader in the camps, speaking on condition of anonymity, has said the three slain men were members of the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (
RSO
).
"Murders and gunfights are occurring every day and night in the camp. ARSA killed three RSOs yesterday. No Rohingya are safe here. ARSA and RSO have made the camps hell for the Rohingya refugees," he said.
Security within the Rohingya camps has been declining since April. Rival Rohingya groups have initiated campaigns to forcibly recruit young men and teenage boys to combat in Myanmar.
About 1,500 Rohingya have been coerced from the camps to join the conflict, according to a confidential report circulated among UN agencies last month and viewed by AFP.
Worried parents and Rohingya community leaders have organized patrol groups in the camps to prevent recruitment raids.
At least 20 Rohingya have died this year in clashes between rival militant groups, as reported by the national daily Prothom Alo.
Different Rohingya armed groups are individually gathering troops for Myanmar's military, responsible for their violent expulsion from the country in 2017.
These groups argue that the Rohingya must ally with past enemies within the Myanmar army to confront a new threat.
The recruits have been sent across the border to engage with the Arakan Army, which seeks greater autonomy in Myanmar's Rakhine state, also home to roughly 600,000 Rohingya.
(With AFP inputs)
