Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence.
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
CNN
—
Tears rolling down her face and her body shaking in pain, Hamida holds her four-year-old daughter and little boy on her lap, comforting them as they cry for their father.
The 22-year-old member of the Rohingya ethnic group is surviving thanks to the kindness of other refugees in a camp near Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh – and trying to come to terms with the horrors she endured in neighboring Myanmar, where a civil war is raging between the country’s military and rebel groups such as the Arakan Army.
“When they entered my house, they hit me and beat me. When I tried to free myself, they raped me,” says Hamida. “They tied me up for at least an hour.”
Hamida, who wanted to give only her first name for fear of reprisals, said she was raped by seven Arakan Army soldiers in the attack in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state in late July.
“I screamed, so they covered my mouth with their hands,” she says. “They raped me. They hit me with their weapons. They kicked me. I still can’t move without pain.”
During the attack, her husband heard her screams and ran into the hut to save her, but he was crushed and had to watch.
“They slaughtered my husband after raping me,” she says. “Four Arakan Army soldiers held him down and one slaughtered him with a large sharp knife.”
CNN cannot independently verify Hamida’s account of the attack – nor the accounts of other survivors who fled to safety across the Naf River, which forms a natural border between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Known as the world’s largest refugee camp, more than a million Rohingya Muslims live in makeshift tents near the town of Cox’s Bazar. Most of them fled there in August 2017 after Myanmar’s military killed an estimated 10,000 people in an incident that United Nations experts described as genocide.
Now new arrivals like Hamida bring with them reports of mass killings, bombings of civilians and burned villages – still reminiscent of the 2017 attacks. But this time, the ethnic Rakhine rebel group Arakan Army is blamed for the brutality.
August 5 was the day with the most attacks, according to witnesses, when about 200 people were killed when drones rained bombs on people fleeing the fighting in the town of Maungdaw.
Videos circulated online showing piles of bodies – mostly women and children surrounded by their belongings – scattered in a mangrove forest along the coast, slaughtered as they tried to board boats to Bangladesh.
Abdul Bashar, a 48-year-old father who survived the drone strikes, said they took place around 6 p.m. that day.
“When we reached the border fence, we saw a large bomb fall on a group of people, killing many of them,” he says. “They attacked with drones, gunfire and heavy weapons. It felt like the end of the world.”
Bashar witnessed the deaths of his 17-year-old son and his sister while breastfeeding their eight-month-old daughter.
“I couldn’t look back because the bombs were falling so hard,” he said. “I had two of my children with me and I was bleeding.”
Bashar is currently staying in a camp in Cox’s Bazar with his ten-year-old nephew – whose parents and five siblings were killed in the attack. The boy survived despite severe shrapnel injuries to his arm.
“I think death would be better than experiencing this,” Bashar said.
A new report by human rights group Fortify Rights calls on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to “investigate a massacre of Rohingya civilians carried out by the Arakan Army (AA).” A separate report by Human Rights Watch says the attacks “raise fears of ethnic cleansing.”
In an interview with CNN, Arakan Army spokesman Khaing Thu Ka denied the allegations of atrocities and called the reports “fake news and disinformation.”
He said the AA fighters “never attacked or killed innocent civilians” and claimed that the August 5 drone strikes were carried out by the military.
Myanmar’s military blames the AA for the attacks. CNN cannot independently attribute reports of responsibility or verify the number of people killed.
In response to a separate question about Hamida’s gang rape testimony, AA’s Khaing Thu Ka said the group would “certainly investigate” her case.
The Rohingya – a predominantly Muslim ethnic group with their own language and culture – have long been persecuted and denied citizenship in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Official propaganda refers to them as “Bengalis” or “illegal immigrants”. They are also denied official status in Bangladesh, which is why they are considered “the most undesirable people in the world”.
Bangladesh’s new interim leader Muhammad Yunus has promised to continue supporting the Rohingya in his country, but called for an end to the fighting in Myanmar so that they can return to their homeland in “safety, dignity and with all rights”.
Tight controls remain in place along the 30-kilometer-long coast of the Naf River that winds between Myanmar and its neighbor, with Bangladeshi border officials under orders to try to keep fleeing Rohingya out.
Refugees are now using the cover of darkness to evade arrest, often setting off from Myanmar at around 10 p.m. to begin the three-kilometer journey across the water.
Just before midnight, CNN drives along the long coastal road to a small fishing village on the southern tip of Bangladesh – to meet with a Rohingya refugee who has sneaked out of the camp to meet his sister, who is due to arrive that same evening on a boat from Myanmar.
For safety reasons, all phones on their boat had been turned off during the trip, so he didn’t hear any news for hours.
“I’m really worried,” said Mohammed, who did not want to give his real name. “This is my big sister.”
He is afraid that his sister, who cannot swim, could drown during the crossing. Many refugee boats have sunk in recent weeks, and the bodies of their desperate passengers have eventually been washed ashore and buried in shallow graves on the beach.
Mohammed’s fears are heightened by the sounds of explosions and gunfire at dawn across the river – a reminder of why his sister and other Rohingya are fleeing.
On the Bangladesh side, it has become a game of cat and mouse for the coast guard to spot boats emerging from the inky waters before they reach land. The full moon casts a silvery glow over the river, making incoming boats particularly vulnerable to detection.
A senior border official who spoke to CNN on the beach said when boats come ashore during their watch, they typically provide food to the people on board before sending them back.
Mohammed’s sister does not show up that night, and at dawn he panics.
“The world is dark for me now,” he said. “I’ve lost everything… in my life.”
Hours later, he learns that his sister has made it to land further up the coast – but has been kidnapped by brokers who demanded money for her release. She was eventually reunited with Mohammed in the camps, but the family spent all their money to get her to safety.
Despite the challenges of the crossing, Bangladeshi officials told CNN that more than 5,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar during the recent fighting.
There are currently increasing calls for Bangladesh to grant humanitarian access to arriving refugees.
“UNHCR calls on Bangladesh to provide safety to refugees fleeing violence in northern Rakhine State, most recently in Maungdaw township,” said Shari Nijman, spokesperson for UNHCR Bangladesh. “Among the new arrivals are many women and children, some with life-threatening injuries from gunfire and artillery fire.”
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which operates several clinics in Cox’s Bazar, told CNN that it treated 54 people with “war injuries” between August 5 and 11, 48 percent of whom were women and children.
Jamila Begum, 45, made it across in a boat with four of her grandchildren, including a six-month-old baby.
She said her family tried to flee their homes during a lull in the fighting on August 5, but then bombs “fell on the roof of the house,” killing Begum’s daughter, who was holding her youngest child in her arms – along with her husband and seven-year-old daughter.
Begum fled with her surviving grandchildren and they hid for five days before boarding a boat to Bangladesh. But her eldest grandchild did not make it – he succumbed to his injuries before they could find a boat and she was forced to abandon him on the beach.
After they left, she heard that the AA had set fire to her village.
“AA wants to drive the Rohingya out of Rakhine State,” Begum said, echoing the sentiments of dozens of other refugees CNN spoke to.
Now Begum is safe in the camps, but she fears for the future of her grandchildren as she is their only guardian.
“The sadness will not disappear from our lives,” she says.
CNN’s Helen Regan and Avery Schmitz contributed to this report.
