But it added that it’s carrying out an offensive near Maungdaw to “completely capture” remaining military camps and had been warning civilians since June 16 to evacuate Muangdaw as quickly as possible.
The AA said it was “saddened to learn” that Rohingya fleeing the town had “reportedly” been killed by “small arms fire, bombings, drownings, airstrikes or massive explosions near the coast of Maungdaw, causing great distress.” And it blamed the deaths on the Myanmar military and allied Rohingya armed groups.
However, Myanmar’s military junta blamed the AA for attacks in Maungdaw in a state media report that claimed “AA terrorists fired at townships, wards and villages in Rakhine state using heavy weapons and drones and tortured the villagers.”
CNN cannot independently attribute the reports of responsibility, or verify the number of people who were killed. A junta-imposed internet and telecoms blackout, and restrictions on access in the state is making it almost impossible for journalists, activists and international monitoring groups to verify exactly what is unfolding.
Myanmar’s Rohingya have long suffered mass atrocities and forced displacement that many – including United Nations experts – consider to be genocide, perpetrated by the country’s military.
The latest violence has echoes of attacks on the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017, when Myanmar’s military launched a brutal campaign of killing, rape and arson that is currently subject to a genocide investigation at the International Court of Justice.
Fires and ‘forced conscription’
Reports by activists and local media suggest attacks in villages close to Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh, along the Naf River, continued in the days after August 5, with accounts of more deaths, sexual violence, the burning of homes and forced conscription by the AA.
“The fighting is increasing,” Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist and co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition, who spoke with residents in Maungdaw, told CNN Monday. “There are about 4,000 to 5,000 people fleeing to AA-controlled areas and some 5,000 people in the downtown area.”
Remote sensing data curated by NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System and viewed by CNN also suggests fires began in downtown Maungdaw in the early hours of August 6. Satellite imagery similarly indicates thermal scarring in Rohingya-majority areas of Maungdaw, though fire damage does not appear extensive.
In a statement on Friday, medical NGO Doctors Without Borders said its teams in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh treated 39 Rohingya people who had crossed from Myanmar with “violence-related injuries” including mortar shell injuries and gunshot wounds.
Patients, more than 40% of whom were women and children, described seeing people bombed while trying to board boats across the river and others said they saw hundreds of bodies on the riverbanks, said the statement from the NGO, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
MSF said it’s the first time in a year their staff have seen serious injuries on this scale.
“It is clear that the safe space for civilians in Myanmar is shrinking more each day, with people… forced to make perilous journeys to Bangladesh to seek safety,” said Orla Murphy, MSF country representative in Bangladesh.
Fighting between the AA and the Myanmar military have intensified around Maungdaw in recent weeks as the rebel group continues its offensive to seize more military posts and towns from the junta.
Hasan, a 24-year-old student who spoke with CNN by phone from Bangladesh on Friday, said he fled his village north of Maungdaw on August 5, following a series of drones and artillery attacks that he said were launched by the AA.
“In the first drone attack, 30 people were killed and in the second attack… I saw 50 people dead,” he said. Two villages were set on fire, he added.
Hasan, who goes by one name, was shot in his right leg as he fled to the river, according to X-ray and medical records he shared with CNN.
But Hasan said he is one of the lucky ones. He managed to board a boat and cross the 2-mile stretch of river to Bangladesh.
“It was not easy to cross the border. During the attack I got to a boat. After one hour waiting in the middle of the river, we crossed the Bangladesh border,” he said. “People were dead in the river… Luckily I safely reached Bangladesh.”
