11 Aug. 24: A devastating drone attack in Myanmar’s Rakhine state claimed the lives of over 200 Rohingya people, including women and children, as they attempted to flee the country’s ongoing violence. The attack, which occurred on Sunday, targeted families waiting to cross the border into neighboring Bangladesh.
Witnesses described harrowing scenes of bodies strewn across muddy ground, with survivors desperately searching through the carnage for their loved ones. Among the victims was a heavily pregnant woman and her 2-year-old daughter. The attack is believed to be the deadliest assault on civilians in Rakhine during the recent clashes between Myanmar’s military junta and the Arakan Army, an armed rebel group.
Eyewitnesses have accused the Arakan Army of carrying out the drone strikes, though the group denies these allegations, instead blaming the Myanmar military. The responsibility for the attack remains unverified, with Reuters unable to independently confirm the exact number of casualties or the perpetrators.
The aftermath of the attack has been equally grim, with boats carrying Rohingya refugees sinking in the Naf River, which separates Myanmar and Bangladesh. The capsizing of these boats led to the deaths of dozens more, adding to the growing toll of those fleeing persecution.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported treating 39 people who had crossed into Bangladesh with injuries from gunfire and mortar shells. Patients recounted the terror of being bombed while attempting to escape.
The Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have faced decades of brutal persecution. The situation escalated in 2017, when a military crackdown forced over 730,000 Rohingya to flee the country in what the United Nations described as a campaign of genocide. Recent weeks have seen a resurgence of violence in Rakhine, with the Arakan Army gaining ground and driving out the remaining Rohingya population.
International condemnation of the attack has been swift, with activist groups and diplomats expressing outrage. Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations and former special envoy to Myanmar, confirmed the reports, stating on social media, “These reports of hundreds of Rohingya killed at the Bangladesh/Myanmar border are, I’m sorry to say, accurate.”
Myanmar’s junta has attempted to shift the blame onto the Arakan Army, but the continuing cycle of violence and blame-shifting offers little hope for the Rohingya people, who remain trapped in a nightmare of persecution, violence, and displacement.
