Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority use a local boat to cross a stream after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border near Cox's Bazar's Dakhinpara area, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims are pouring into Bangladesh, part of an exodus of the beleaguered ethnic group from neighboring Myanmar that began when violence erupted there on August 25. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
The Associated Press
SHAH PORIR DWIP, Bangladesh (AP) - Tens of thousands more people have crossed by boat and on foot into Bangladesh in the last 24 hours as they flee violence in western Myanmar, the UNHCR said Saturday.
Both Myanmar's security officials and insurgents from the Rohingya ethnic minority are accusing each other of burning down villages and committing atrocities in Myanmar's Rakhine state. The military has said nearly 400 people, most of them insurgents, have died in armed clashes.
The violence has triggered a flood of refugees crossing mostly on foot into Bangladesh, though some were fleeing in wooden boats.
"Roughly 60,000 have arrived in Bangladesh since the violence erupted on Aug. 25," said U.N. Refugee Agency spokeswoman Vivian Tan. That is about 20,000 more than the number local officials had estimated on Friday.
Refugees who had arrived at the Bangladeshi fishing village of Shah Porir Dwip described bombs exploding and Rohingyas being burned alive.
"We fled to Bangladesh to save our lives," said a man who only gave his first name, Karim. "The military and extremist Rakhine are burning us, burning us, killing us, setting our village on fire."
He said he paid 12,000 Bangladeshi taka, or about $150, for each of his family members to be smuggled on a wooden boat to Bangladesh after soldiers killed 110 Rohingya in their village of Kunnapara, near the coastal town of Maungdaw.
"The military destroyed everything. After killing some Rohingya, the military burned their houses and shops," he said. "We have a baby who is 8 days only, and an old woman who is 105.
Satellite imagery analyzed by Human Rights Watch shows hundreds of buildings had been destroyed in at least 17 sites across Rakhine state since Aug. 25, including some 700 structures that appeared to have been burned down in just the village of Chein Khar Li, the international rights watchdog said in a statement Saturday.
Ali Hossain, a deputy commissioner in Cox's Bazar, said Bangladesh was struggling to cope as "the flow of Rohingya refugees is continuing by boat and the land route."
The Red Cross has sent teams to refugee camps, in coordination with the local Red Crescent Society, to "assess the refugees' requirements. The influx is scattered at different places. The task is challenging for us," said spokeswoman Misada Saif.
"We hope to start supplying water and food soon," Saif said.
The violence erupted on Aug. 25, when insurgents attacked Myanmar police and paramilitary posts in what they said was an effort to protect minority Rohingya. In response, the military unleashed what it called "clearance operations" to root out the insurgents.
Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say security forces and vigilantes both have attacked and burned villages, shooting civilians and causing others to flee.
The government blames the insurgents for burning their own homes and killing Buddhists in Rakhine. Longstanding tension between the Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists erupted in bloody rioting in 2012, forcing more than 100,000 Rohingya into displacement camps, where many still live.
Bangladeshi police said Thursday that three boats carrying refugees had capsized in the Naf River, killing at least 26, including women and children.
On Saturday, people in the Shah Porir Dwip fishing village gathered to bury the body of one woman found floating near the river bank.
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Associated Press writer Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority family members walk on a broken road a day after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border near Cox's Bazar's Dakhinpara area, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims are pouring into Bangladesh, part of an exodus of the beleaguered ethnic group from neighboring Myanmar that began when violence erupted there on August 25.(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
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Smoke rises from the Myanmar side of the border, as seen from the Bangladesh-Myanmar border of Tumbro, Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. Both Myanmarâs security officials and insurgents from the Rohingya ethnic minority are accusing each other of burning down villages and committing atrocities in Myanmarâs Rakhine state. Tens of thousands more Rohingya have crossed by boat and on foot into Bangladesh in the last 24 hours as they flee violence in western Myanmar, the UNHCR said Saturday. (AP Photo/Suvra Kanti Das)
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Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority members walk through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border near Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Myanmar's military says almost 400 people have died in recent violence in the western state of Rakhine triggered by attacks on security forces by insurgents from the Rohingya. Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say hundreds of Rohingya civilians have been killed by security forces. Thousands have fled into neighboring Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
The Associated Press
A young Rohingya ethnic minority boy from Myanmar carries a child on his back and walks through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border near Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Myanmar's military says almost 400 people have died in recent violence in the western state of Rakhine triggered by attacks on security forces by insurgents from the Rohingya. Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say hundreds of Rohingya civilians have been killed by security forces. Thousands have fled into neighboring Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
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Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority members walk through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border near Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims are pouring into Bangladesh, part of an exodus of the beleaguered ethnic group from neighbouring Myanmar that began when violence erupted there on August 25. Most of Myanmar's estimated 1 million Rohingya live in northern Rakhine state. They face severe persecution, with the government refusing to recognize them as a legitimate native ethnic minority, leaving them without citizenship and basic rights. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
The Associated Press
A Rohingya ethnic minority from Myanmar carries a child in a sack and walks through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border near Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Myanmar's military says almost 400 people have died in recent violence in the western state of Rakhine triggered by attacks on security forces by insurgents from the Rohingya. Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say hundreds of Rohingya civilians have been killed by security forces. Thousands have fled into neighboring Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
The Associated Press
Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority members walk through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border near Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Myanmar's military says almost 400 people have died in recent violence in the western state of Rakhine triggered by attacks on security forces by insurgents from the Rohingya. Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say hundreds of Rohingya civilians have been killed by security forces. Thousands have fled into neighboring Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
The Associated Press
Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority members walk through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border near Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Myanmar's military says almost 400 people have died in recent violence in the western state of Rakhine triggered by attacks on security forces by insurgents from the Rohingya. Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say hundreds of Rohingya civilians have been killed by security forces. Thousands have fled into neighboring Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
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