Over 2,350 injured Rohingyas treated
Bangladesh said yesterday it had treated more than 2,350 Rohingya refugees for serious injuries sustained during ethnic violence in Myanmar, including bullet and machete wounds and trauma from landmines.
About 4,22,000 refugees from the stateless Muslim minority have fled Myanmar's westernmost Rakhine State since August 25, overwhelming camps along the border ill-prepared for an influx of desperate civilians.
Local authorities and aid agencies in Cox's Bazar district have been struggling to provide food, shelter and medical treatment for the Rohingya, who recounted tales of torture and rape by Myanmar troops and Buddhist militias as they escaped.
Bangladesh authorities said nearly 14,000 refugees had been treated in hospital and mobile medical clinics for illness and injury, including 2,364 people for wounds consistent with violence.
"These include injuries from bullets, mines or sharp weapons such as knives," Enayet Hussain, a senior health department official, told AFP.
Bangladeshi officials believe anti-personnel mines have been planted by Myanmar security forces to prevent Rohingya from trying to return to their villages, and several deaths from these banned weapons have been reported.
Hussain said local hospitals and medical clinics were "overstretched" but health authorities were "prepared to face the crisis" described by aid agencies as a humanitarian catastrophe.
Bangladesh has deployed the army to restore order and fast-track the construction of shelters for thousands of refugees still living in the open exposed to monsoon rain.
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