New analysis of satellite imagery from Myanmar's Rakhine State shows the near total destruction of 214 villages amid the military's crackdown on Rohingya militants there, Human Rights Watch said today.
The New York-based rights watchdog said the images reveal destruction of tens of thousands of homes across Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships in the northern part of the state, where communal tensions between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims have erupted into violence.
It said the images corroborate refugee accounts of arson, killings and looting by the Myanmar security forces and mobs of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, who form a majority in the state, since the military began retaliating for coordinated attacks by carried out by Rohingya militants on security posts on Aug. 25.