NAYAPARA REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh (AP) — Refugees and aid groups say hunger is the latest weapon used by the Myanmar military against Rohingya Muslims.
The accounts of the military cutting off access to food could not be independently confirmed, as Myanmar’s government does not allow reporters into the northern part of Rakhine state, where most of the Rohingya lived.
However, more than a dozen interviews by The Associated Press with the most recent refugees show growing desperation, as the noose tightens around their communities in what U.N. officials have said may be a genocide.
Repeated calls to Myanmar’s military weren’t answered, but the Myanmar government denies ethnic cleansing and says it is battling terrorists. Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye says the government has been distributing food aid to as many people as possible.