The UN Refugee Agency is rushing to provide relief supplies to the border areas in Bangladesh as some 10,000 Rohingya refugees have crossed into the country from Myanmar on Monday.
“UNHCR has loaded trucks with plastic sheets for immediate delivery once our teams verify their locations. The UN Refugee Agency has also asked partner agencies to pre-position food, water and other life-saving supplies for the new refugees, many of whom are exhausted from the long and treacherous journey,” the agency said in a release.
In the past several days, local residents in border areas of south-eastern Bangladesh have reported hearing gunfire in Myanmar, according to the U.N.
The outpouring of refugees from Myanmar started after the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militant group attacked 30 police outposts in Rakhine state, which led to a government crackdown on the mostly-Muslim Rohingya population.