AT LEAST 9,000 Rohingya people have died in Myanmar in the space of a month between 25 August and 24 September.
A mortality survey carried out by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) found 216 people were killed in Rakhine state every day.
More than 71% of the reported deaths were caused by violence and at least 6,700 Rohingya are estimated to have been killed, including at least 730 children below the age of five years.
Overall, gunshots were the cause of death in 69% of the violence-related deaths, followed by being burnt to death in their houses (9%) and beaten to death (5%).
Among children below the age of 5 years, more than 59% killed during that period were reportedly shot, 15% were burnt to death in their home, 7% were beaten to death and 2% died due to landmine blasts.
Médecins Sans Frontières says the findings are the clearest indication yet of the widespread violence that started on August 25 when the Myanmar military, police and local militias launched the latest ‘clearance operations’ in response to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
Since then, more than 647,000 Rohingya have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh.
MSF Medical Director Dr Sidney Wong said, “The numbers of deaths are likely to be an underestimation as we have not surveyed all refugee settlements in Bangladesh and because the surveys don’t account for the families who never made it out of Myanmar
We heard reports of entire families who perished after they were locked inside their homes, while they were set alight.
“Currently people are still fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh and those who do manage to cross the border still report being subject to violence in recent weeks.”
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