Rakhine rebels disguised as sports team abduct dozens after storming Myanmar bus: Army https://t.co/GbHbV5YdT5 — The Straits Times (@STcom) October 13, 2019The Arakan Army, which is fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, could not immediately be reached for comment. Myanmar's army has deployed thousands of troops to the state to try to crush the rebels. Rakhine state was also the site of a deadly crackdown that in August 2017 drove some 740,000 minority Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh. A UN fact-finding mission warned in a report published last month that some 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar still face a "serious risk of genocide." The area on the Bay of Bengal is highly militarised and difficult for independent media and rights monitors to access.

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 13, 2019 07:52 UTC