AFP/KNU Dooplaya district
More than 30,000 Myanmar civilians have fled their villages in the eastern state of Karen and are hiding in nearby jungles following air strikes in populated areas in response to the seizure of a government military post by a rebel ethnic army, an official from an NGO said Friday.
Fighting that flared up in March in Karen has driven thousands of ethnic Karen into Thailand, while others cluster near the border. To Myanmar’s west, Bangladesh has beefed up border patrols to stop an influx of Rohingya trying to join fellow members of their ethnic minority in refugee settlements.