New Delhi: A drone attack on Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar killed dozens of people, including families with children.
Four witnesses, activists and a diplomat told Reuters how Monday’s drone attacks fatally struck down families waiting to cross the border into neighbouring Bangladesh.
The witnesses saw survivors wandering between piles of bodies to identify dead and injured relatives.
According to local people, at least 45 people were killed in the attack, which is being said to be the deadliest assault on civilians in Rakhine state during recent weeks of fighting between junta troops and rebels.
A heavily pregnant woman and her 2-year-old daughter were among the victims.
Several disturbing videos posted on social media showed bodies strewn across muddy ground as their suitcases, bags and backpacks lay scattered around them.
Reuters verified the location of the tragedy outside the coastal Myanmar town of Maungdaw, though the date when videos were filmed couldn’t be confirmed.
Mohammed Eleyas, 35, said his pregnant wife and 2-year-old daughter were wounded in the attack and later succumbed to their injuries. Elyas told Reuters from a refugee camp in Bangladesh that he was standing with his wife and kid on the shoreline when drones began attacking the crowds.
“I heard the deafening sound of shelling multiple times,” Elyas recalled, saying he lay on the ground to protect himself and when he got up, he saw his wife and daughter critically injured and many of his other relatives dead.
Rohingyas are members of a mostly Muslim minority who face extreme persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. More than 730,000 Rohingyas fled the country in 2017 after a military-led crackdown that the UN said was carried out with genocidal intent.
