BANGKOK: A drone attack killed dozens of Rohingya people including women and children while fleeing Myanmar, said several witnesses.
According to the four witnesses, activists and a diplomat drone attacks struck down families waiting to cross the border into neighbouring Bangladesh last Monday.
A pregnant woman and her two-year-old daughter were among the victims of the deadliest attack on civilians in Rakhine state during recent weeks of fighting between the junta and rebels.
Three of the witnesses told Western media on Friday that the Arakan Army was responsible for the attack, allegations the group denied. The militia and Myanmar’s military accused each other.
One witness, 35-year-old Mohammed Eleyas told Reuters that his pregnant wife and 2-year-old daughter were injured in the attack who later died.
“I heard the deafening sound of shelling multiple times,” he said. Eleyas added he lay on the ground to protect himself and when he got up, he saw his wife and daughter critically wounded and many of his other relatives killed.
A second witness, Shamsuddin, 28, said he survived with his wife and newborn son in the deadly attack. Speaking from a refugee camp in Bangladesh, he said that after the attack many lay dead and shouted in pain after injuries.
According to two witnesses and Bangladesh media boats carrying fleeing Rohingya Muslim minority also sank in the Naf River that separates Myanmar and Bangladesh on Monday, killing dozens more.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a statement the aid organisation had provided treatment to 39 people who had crossed from Myanmar into Bangladesh since Saturday for violence-related wounds including mortar shell and gunshot injuries.
A spokesperson for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said the agency was fully aware of the deaths of refugees from the capsizing of two boats.
The Rohingya Muslims have been long persecuted in Myanmar. More than 730,000 of them fled the country in 2017 after a military crackdown.
