'My family died in front of my eyes’: Harrowing tales from a Myanmar massacre

BBC
Yogita Limaye
South Asia & Afghanistan correspondent
Reporting from
Bangladesh-Myanmar border
20 August 2024

 Nisar lost his family in the attack on the banks of this river

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find distressing.

Fayaz and his wife believed they were moments from safety when the bombs began to fall: “We were getting on the boat one after another - that’s when they started bombing us.”

Wails and shouts filled the air around 17:00 local time on 5 August, Fayaz* says, as thousands of scared Rohingyas made their way to the banks of the Naf river in the town of Maungdaw.

Bodies of Rohingya woman, two children recovered from Naf River

Dhaka Tribune
Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar
June 12th, 2021

File photo: Naf River flows along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border region in Teknaf, Cox's Bazar Dhaka Tribune

They drowned while crossing the river

Police have recovered the bodies of a Rohingya woman and two children from the Naf River from Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar on Saturday.

The bodies were found floating on the river at Teknaf upazila’s Whykong union around 2pm.

Police believe all three bodies were Rohingyas who presumably died while trying to swim across the river.