MYANMAR – Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have held rallies in camps to mark the seventh anniversary of the military crackdown in Myanmar that forced them to flee. Refugees from children to the elderly waved placards and chanted slogans on Sunday in the camps in Cox’s Bazar, demanding an end to violence and their safe return to Myanmar.

Many also wore ribbons bearing the words “Rohingya Genocide Remembrance”. “Hope is home” and “We Rohingya are the citizens of Myanmar,” their placards read. “Enough is enough. Stop violence and attacks on the Rohingya community,” refugee Hafizur Rahman told the Reuters news agency. The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority, have long been a target of discrimination and ethnic violence in Myanmar.

In 2017, at least 750,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after the Myanmar military launched a crackdown that is now the subject of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. In recent weeks, thousands more Rohingya have reportedly fled western Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Bangladesh as fighting escalates between the military regime and the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic armed group that recruits from the Buddhist majority.

The international medical group Doctors without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said its teams in Cox’s Bazar treated 39 people for conflict-related injuries, including mortar shell and gunshot wounds, in the four days leading up to August 7. More than 40 percent of the injured were women and children, it added in a statement.

UNICEF has also raised alarm over the worsening situation in Rakhine, citing increasing reports of civilians, especially children, being caught in the crossfire. (Aljazeera)…[+]