Twelve dead in clashes in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state

TIL Desk/World/Yangon-Twelve people have died in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine state in clashes between armed men and troops, in a sharp escalation of violence in the restive region. Four soldiers and one attacker were killed yesterday when hundreds of men wielding pistols and swords assailed troops in Pyaungpit, Maungdaw township, an area populated mainly by Muslim Rohingya.

Troops also gave a toll of seven dead after fighting in the nearby village of Taung Paing Nyar, updating an earlier figure. “After the incident, troops found seven dead bodies. “Swords and sticks were found with the bodies.”  The military has been scouring the region, not far from the border with Bangladesh, after nine police officers were killed on Sunday in coordinated attacks on three border posts.

The unrest has raised the spectre of a repeat of 2012, when sectarian violence ripped through Rakhine, killing more than 100 people and driving tens of thousands of Rohingya into displacement camps. Rohingya both in and outside the squalid camps face severe restrictions on their movement and access to basic services, with rights groups calling them one of the world’s most persecuted peoples.