UN Chief warns over humanitarian catastrophe in Myanmar

'The secretary-general is deeply concerned by the reports of excesses during the security operations conducted by Myanmar's security forces in Rakhine State and urges restraint and calm to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe,' The statement reads on Friday.

'Nearly 400 people have died in fighting that has rocked Myanmar's north-west for a week, new official data shows, making it probably the deadliest bout of violence to engulf the country's Rohingya Muslim minority in decades,' The Singapore-based English daily Straits Times earlier reported.

'Around 27,400 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar, United Nations sources said, a week after Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army base in Rakhine state, prompting clashes and a military counter-offensive,' the daily said.

Prior to the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis and the military crackdown in 2016 and 2017, the Rohingya population in Myanmar was around 1.1 to 1.3 million. They reside mainly in the northern Rakhine townships.

Many Rohingyas have fled to neighboring states. More than 100,000 Rohingyas in Myanmar live in camps for internally displaced persons, not allowed by authorities to leave.

Probes by the United Nations have found evidence of increasing incitement of hatred and religious intolerance against Rohingyas while the Burmese security forces have been conducting 'summary executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and ill-treatment and forced labour' against the community.

International media and human rights organizations have often described Rohingyas as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. According to the United Nations, the human rights violations against Rohingyas could be termed as 'crimes against humanity'.