Troops have poured into a strip of land along the Bangladesh border, an area which is largely home to the stateless Muslim Rohingya minority, since coordinated attacks on police posts last month. The army this week said troops have killed nearly 70 people as they hunt the attackers, although activists say the number could be much higher. "Up to 30,000 people are now estimated to be displaced and thousands more affected by the 9 October armed attacks and subsequent security operations across the north of Rakhine State," said a spokesman for the UN OCHA. The resurgence of violence in western Rakhine state has deepened a crisis that already posed a critical challenge to the new administration led by democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. More than 100 people died in 2012 in clashes between the majority Buddhist population and the Muslim Rohingya, and tens of thousands of them were driven into displacement camps.

Source: The Nation Bangkok November 18, 2016 14:48 UTC