Bangladesh says dramatic fall in arrival of Rohingya refugees

The influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh has grounded to a virtual halt, officials said on Saturday, almost a month after the eruption of violence in Myanmar which has seen nearly 430,000 flee in four weeks.

Bangladesh border guards said they have seen no boats carrying Rohingya on the Naf river, which marks the Myanmar border, or in the Bay of Bengal for at least three days. Arrivals across the land frontier have almost stopped.

"Our guards have not seen any Rohingya coming in the past few days. The wave is over," Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) commander S M Ariful Islam said.

The UN also said "the influx has dropped" as it gave a new estimate of 429,000 Rohingya crossing the border since a Myanmar military crackdown in Rakhine state was launched on August 25.

Neither the Bangladesh military nor the UN advanced any reason for the dramatic fall in new arrivals. 

UN agencies had given a daily update on the figure but said it would now only be released every Sunday.

"No Rohingya came crossing our side of the border in the past few days," said Manzurul Hasan Khan, another BGB commander whose soldiers mostly patrol the land border.

The Rohingya Muslims have been jammed in camps around the Bangladesh border city of Cox's Bazar, stretching government and UN agencies to the limit.

TRT World's Asia Reporter Shamim Chowdhury is at one of the camps, where she says the Rohingya are being given a chance to rebuild their lives.

More villages targeted

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said this week that troops had ceased "clearance operations" targeting Rohingya rebels in Myanmar's border area.

Attacks by rebels on Myanmar police posts on August 25 unleashed the military crackdown which the United Nations has said amounts to "ethnic cleansing."

Rohingya crossing the border say they witnessed mass killings and rapes by troops and Buddhist militias in Myanmar. The army denies the allegations.

And rights group Amnesty International said it has assessed three new videos taken inside Rakhine state as recently as Friday showing large plumes of smoke rising from Rohingya villages.

The stateless minority has languished under years of discrimination in the mainly Buddhist country, where they are denied citizenship.

With the latest exodus Bangladesh now hosts over 800,000 Rohingya. 

Explosion outside a mosque 

Meanwhile, Myanmar's army chief on Saturday blamed Rohingya rebels for an explosion outside a mosque in Rakhine state.

Myanmar's commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing posted a statement on Facebook saying Rohingya rebels planted a "home-made mine" that exploded in between a mosque and madrasa in northern Rakhine's Buthidaung township on Friday.

The army chief accused the rebels of trying to drive out around 700 villagers who have remained in Mi Chaung Zay - an argument analysts have said makes little sense for a group whose power depends on the networks it has built across Rohingya communities. 

With the government blocking access to the conflict zone, it is difficult to verify the swirl of claims and counterclaims over who is driving the unrest, which has also displaced thousands of Buddhists and Hindus.

Rights groups say there is overwhelming evidence that the army is using its crackdown on rebels to systematically purge the 1.1-million strong stateless Rohingya from its borders.