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Nearly 100 Myanmar Border Guards Flee to Bangladesh


Members of Myanmar Border Guard Police, in civilian clothing, sit under the shade of trees after abandoning their posts following fighting between Myanmar security forces and Arakan Army as Bangladesh border guards stand guard in Ghumdhum, Bandarban, Bangladesh, Feb. 5, 2024.
Members of Myanmar Border Guard Police, in civilian clothing, sit under the shade of trees after abandoning their posts following fighting between Myanmar security forces and Arakan Army as Bangladesh border guards stand guard in Ghumdhum, Bandarban, Bangladesh, Feb. 5, 2024.

At least 95 Myanmar border guards have fled to Bangladesh to escape the mounting fighting between Myanmar’s junta and rebel forces, according to a Bangladeshi border guard spokesman.

The spokesman said the guards crossed the border to flee the fighting between government forces and the Arakan Army in recent days. The clashes have taken place in Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh.

Authorities in Myanmar have not commented.

Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said Sunday that it had seen 17 patients in Bangladesh, following the fighting at the border. “All the patients had gunshot wounds,” MSF said. Two of the patients suffered life-threatening wounds, while five were seriously wounded.

In 2017, almost one million Rohingyas, a Muslim minority who lived in Myanmar, were forced to flee because of a brutal military crackdown on them.

Many of them now live in Cox’s Bazar, a massive refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Officials said Monday that bullets and mortar from the fighting in Myanmar landed in Bangladesh and killed at least two people.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press,and Agence France-Presse.

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