Arakan News Agency
More than 500,000 Rohingya people have fled the state after violent attacks against them, the state secretary-general of the Arakan Tin Maung Swe state said on Thursday, contradicting Myanmar National Security Adviser Thaung Tun, who said the majority of Arakan Muslims now live in at a press conference at the UN office in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this week.
Swe made the announcement at a news conference in Nay Pyi Daw on the state of Arakan.
“There are currently 46,665 people living in the city of Maungdaw, who have provided 535,764 of their homes in the area,” Swe said.
This is the first time that the Government of Myanmar has disclosed the number of people who have fled their homes. The United Nations has announced that more than 700,000 people have fled their homes in Myanmar, more than 200,000 of whom the Government of Myanmar has declared.
“This is not the first time that Myanmar government officials have contradicted and have already made more contradictory statements,” said Abdullah Abdul Qader, a Rohingya activist.
