‘They chose to fight and die rather than be slaughtered like sheep’: Rohingya men answer call to arms against Myanmar’s forces

Heavily pregnant and confined to a squalid Bangladeshi refugee camp, Ayesha Begum does not regret that her husband will miss the imminent birth of their sixth child as he fights alongside Rohingya militants in Myanmar.

Begum, 25, joined the exodus of Rohingya fleeing troubled Rakhine state in recent days as fresh violence erupted between Myanmar’s security forces and militants fighting for the stateless Muslim minority. But, like many, her husband stayed behind in Myanmar to join the growing ranks of Rohingya men answering the call to arms against security forces, say relatives and community leaders.

“He took us to the river and sent us across,” Begum said in Kutupalong camp, describing crossing the Naf River by boat with her children into Bangladesh. “He bid us farewell, saying if I live he’d see us soon in a free Arakan [Rakhine state], or else we’ll meet in heaven.”

The Rohingya largely averred violence despite years of suffocating restrictions and persecution. That dramatically changed last October when a nascent Rohingya militant group launched surprise attacks on border posts.

Myanmar’s military reacted with a violent “clearance operation” to sweep out the militants. The UN has said that crackdown may have amounted to ethnic cleansing.