Myanmar border guards flee to Bangladesh as fighting between junta, rebels intensifies

Officials in Bangladesh on Monday said that over the past few days, a minimum of 95 Myanmar border guards, some of whom sustained injuries, have sought refuge in Bangladesh amid escalating conflict between rebel factions in Myanmar and the ruling junta regime.

Since orchestrating a coup against the democratically elected government in 2021, the junta has encountered its most formidable opposition yet as it grapples with containing a violent uprising. Allied anti-junta factions, supported by a parallel pro-democracy administration, have successfully seized control of numerous military installations and towns.

The echoes of gunfire reverberate across the border into Bangladesh’s southeastern tourist hub of Cox’s Bazar, where nearly one million Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar reside in makeshift camps constructed from bamboo and plastic. These Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar in 2017 to escape a military crackdown.

According to Shariful Islam, a spokesperson for Border Guard Bangladesh, members of the Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) entered Bangladesh while carrying their firearms. Fifteen of these guards sustained gunshot wounds during their border crossing and were subsequently treated at various hospitals.

The BGP troops could be accommodated in the nearby district of Bandarban before they are sent back to Myanmar, said Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner based in Cox’s Bazar.

“I have been asked if the BGP can be sheltered safely in transit camps that were built in Bandarban for repatriating Rohingya refugees. The camps are empty,” Reuters quoted Rahman as saying.

Bullets and mortar shells from across the Myanmar border landed on Bangladesh territory on Monday, killing at least two people, a government official in Cox’s Bazar said.

“A Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya were killed and a child injured near the border by a mortar shell fired from Myanmar,” Reuters quoted Mohammad Shamsud Douza, the deputy Bangladesh government official in charge of refugees, as saying.

Many residents on the Bangladeshi side of the border have fled to the houses of relatives further away from violence out of fear, he said.

Panic has gripped the refugee camps in Myanmar with many waiting to cross over to Bangladesh as supply chains have been cut off due to the ongoing conflict, according to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

“Now and then we hear the sound of gunshots from Myanmar. Some of the Rohingya Muslims want to flee here as they are living in constant fear without basic needs,” Rohingya refugee Oli Hossain told Reuters.

“Even we are living in fear because of the sound of gunshots.”

With inputs from agencies