Rohingya rebels call one-month Myanmar ceasefire as exodus grows

YANGON AFP Sept10, 2017- Rohingya militants, whose August 25 raids in Myanmar’s Rakhine State sparked an army crackdown that has seen nearly 300,000 of the Muslim minority flee to Bangladesh, on Sunday declared an immediate unilateral one-month ceasefire. Bedraggled and exhausted Rohingya refugees have arrived in huge numbers in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar area for over two weeks, while tens of thousands more are believed to be on the move inside Rakhine, many in desperate conditions after more than a fortnight without shelter, food and water.   

A further 27,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists as well as Hindus have also been displaced by violence that has unfurled across the northern part of the state.    “The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations,” it said in a statement on its Twitter handle @ARSA_Official, adding it was to allow for humanitarian aid to reach the battered region.   
The group urged “all humanitarian actors” to resume aid delivery to “all victims of humanitarian crisis irrespective of ethnic or religious background” during the ceasefire periodwhich runs until October 9.   
It called on Myanmar to “reciprocate this humanitarian pause” in fighting.   
There was no immediate response from Myanmar’s military.