Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Soldiers are "killing men, slaughtering children, raping women", says John McKissick of the UN refugee agency in Bangladesh

Myanmar is seeking the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority from its territory, a senior UN official has told the BBC.

Armed forces have been killing Rohingya in Rakhine state, forcing many to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, says John McKissick of the UN refugee agency.

The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been conducting counter-insurgency operations since coordinated attacks on border guards in October.

It denies reports of atrocities.

A spokesman said the government was "very, very disappointed" by the comments.

Burmese officials say Rohingya are setting fire to their own houses in northern Rakhine state. The BBC cannot visit the area to verify what is occurring there, as journalists and aid workers have been barred.

The Rohingya, who number about one million, are seen by many of Myanmar's Buddhist majority as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rohingya Muslims 'hated and hounded from Burmese soil'

Although Bangladesh's official policy is not to allow in illegal entrants across the border, the foreign ministry has confirmed that thousands of Rohingya have already sought refuge in the country, while thousands more are reportedly gathering on the border.

Some are using smugglers to get into Bangladesh, while others have bribed border guards, according to Amnesty International.

Efforts to resolve the issue must focus on "the root cause" inside Myanmar, Mr McKissick, head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR in the Bangladeshi border town of Cox's Bazar, told BBC Bengali's Akbar Hossain.

He said the Myanmar military and Border Guard Police had "engaged in collective punishment of the Rohingya minority" after the murders of nine border guards on 9 October which some politicians blamed on a Rohingya militant group.

Security forces have been "killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river" into Bangladesh, Mr McKissick said.

"Now it's very difficult for the Bangladeshi government to say the border is open because this would further encourage the government of Myanmar to continue the atrocities and push them out until they have achieved their ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar," he said.

Where is Aung San Suu Kyi? - BBC Myanmar Correspondent Jonah Fisher

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is in a delicate position. She is Myanmar's de facto leader, but security is under the control of the autonomous armed forces.

If Ms Suu Kyi bows to international pressure and sets up a credible investigation into the alleged abuses in Rakhine state, she risks fracturing her relationship with the army. It could jeopardise the stability of her young government.

So for the last six weeks Ms Suu Kyi has kept her head firmly in the sand, avoiding journalists and press conferences.

When forced, she has commented that the military in Rakhine is operating according to the "rule of law". Few believe that to be the case.

While there are loud calls from overseas for action, most Burmese have very little sympathy for the Rohingya. The army's "clearance operations" against the "violent attackers" of Rakhine state appear to have strong popular support, putting Ms Suu Kyi under very little domestic pressure.

Myanmar's presidential spokesman Zaw Htay said Mr McKissick "should maintain his professionalism and his ethics as a United Nations officer because his comments are just allegations".

"He should only speak based on concrete and strong evidence on the ground," he said.

On Wednesday, the Bangladesh foreign ministry summoned Myanmar's ambassador to express "deep concern" over the military operation in northern Rakhine state.

It said "desperate people" were crossing the border seeking safety and shelter and asked Myanmar to "ensure the integrity of its border".

Authorities in Bangladesh have been detaining and repatriating hundreds of fleeing Rohingya, which Amnesty International condemned as a violation of international law.

Bangladesh does not recognise Rohingya as refugees, and many of those fleeing Myanmar have been "forced into hiding and are suffering a severe lack of food and medical care", the rights group said.

Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers have arrived into Bangladesh from Myanmar in waves since at least the 1970s. There are some 33,000 registered Rohingya refugees living in Cox's Bazar's two camps, Kutupalong and Nayapara.

Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch released satellite images which it said showed that more than 1,200 homes had been razed in Rohingya villages over the past six weeks.

Image copyright Human Rights Watch Image caption A satellite image of the village of Wa Peik, Maungdaw district on 10 November

Image copyright Human Rights Watch Image caption The same area pictured in a satellite image recorded on 18 November

What is happening in Rakhine state?

A massive security operation was launched last month after nine police officers were killed in co-ordinated attacks on border posts in Maungdaw.

Some government officials blamed a militant Rohingya group for the attacks. Security forces then sealed off access to Maungdaw district and launched a counter-insurgency operation.

Rohingya activists say more than 100 people have been killed and hundreds arrested amid the crackdown.

Soldiers have also been accused of serious human rights abuses, including torture, rape and executions, which the government has flatly denied.

It says militants have attacked helicopter gunships providing air support to troops.

Who are the Rohingya?

The estimated one million Muslim Rohingya are seen by many in mainly Buddhist Myanmar as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. They are denied citizenship by the government despite many having lived there for generations.

Communal violence in Rakhine state in 2012 left scores dead and displaced more than 100,000 people, with many Rohingya still remaining in decrepit camps.

They face widespread discrimination and mistreatment.

Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya are estimated to live in Bangladesh, having left Myanmar over decades.

Is the government to blame?

Myanmar held its first openly contested election in 25 years last November, with Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy winning a landslide victory.

Though she is barred from the presidency due to a constitutional rule, Ms Suu Kyi, who serves as State Counsellor, is seen as de-facto leader.

But her government, led as it is by a former human rights icon, has faced international criticism over the dire situation in Rakhine state.

Rights groups have questioned why journalists and aid workers are not being allowed to enter northern Rakhine.

Presidential spokesman Zaw Htay says the international media is misreporting what is going on.</s>Hundreds of Indonesians, angered over the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, protested Thursday outside the Myanmar Embassy in the Indonesian capital.

Jakarta police spokesman Awi Setiyono said at least 200 people joined the demonstration. They marched in three groups to the embassy, which was guarded by dozens of police, and staged a noisy but peaceful protest.

The protesters held big banners that read, "Stop Muslim genocide in Myanmar," and shouted "Save Rohingya."

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is a strong supporter of the Rohingya cause in predominantly-Buddhist Myanmar.

An anti-Myanmar protest is also planned Friday by a youth group in Muslim-majority Malaysia, and the country's sports minister has called for Malaysia to withdraw from a Southeast Asian football tournament that Myanmar will participate in.

The Myanmar government does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens, though they have lived in the country for generations. Persecution of Rohinyga has escalated in the past several years and they face violence instigated by Buddhist hardl-iners and institutionalized discrimination.

High-definition satellite images analyzed by Human Rights Watch show the destruction this month of 1,250 buildings in five Rohingya villages in Rakhine state, where the military is carrying out counter-insurgency operations.

Ko Ko Linn, an activist of the Arakan Rohingya National Organization, has said that more than 100 people have been killed and more than 1,000 homes destroyed in the crackdown.

The claims are impossible to verify, as is the government's account of events, because of restrictions on journalists and aid workers entering the region.

Myanmar's presidential spokesman Zaw Htay accused Human Rights Watch of exaggeration after the release of an initial set of satellite imagery that showed 430 destroyed buildings in three villages.

Indonesian extremists responded to sectarian violence in Myanmar that killed scores of people in 2013 with a plot to bomb the Myanmar Embassy. More than a dozen militants were sentenced to prison for involvement in the plot.</s>Thousands of Bangladeshis marched in the capital's streets Friday to protest the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, one of several similar rallies in the region.

Chanting "Stop killing Rohingya Muslims," they marched in Dhaka as violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state escalated, forcing thousands to leave their homes.

The protesters from several Islamic groups burned an effigy of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a flag of Myanmar. They carried banners reading "Open border to save the Rohingya." Bangladesh's southeast borders Myanmar.

Organizers said some 10,000 protesters joined the rally in Dhaka. Smaller protests occurred in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Also, rights group Amnesty International asked Bangladesh not to forcibly send fleeing Rohingya back to Myanmar.

Up to 500,000 undocumented Rohingya have been living in Bangladesh after arriving from Myanmar in waves since the 1970s. Some 33,000 registered Rohingya refugees are lodged in two camps in southern Cox's Bazar district.

Local media reported that a few thousand Rohingya Muslims have entered Bangladesh this week with the help of smugglers, but authorities didn't confirm that.

Maj. Gen. Abul Hossain, director general of the Bangladesh Border Guard, said on Friday that "only some" arrived by boats.

On Thursday, Bangladeshi border guards did not allow at least a dozen boats carrying Rohingya to enter Bangladesh, said Lt. Col. Abu Jar Al Jahid, a commanding officer of the border agency in Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area.

Amnesty International condemned the persecution of Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar and Bangladesh's unwillingness to accept them.

"The Rohingya are being squeezed by the callous actions of both the Myanmar and Bangladesh authorities. Fleeing collective punishment in Myanmar, they are being pushed back by the Bangladeshi authorities. Trapped between these cruel fates, their desperate need for food, water and medical care is not being addressed," said Champa Patel, Amnesty International's South Asia director.

Myanmar's security forces are mounting indiscriminate reprisal attacks against Rohingya in response to an Oct. 9 assault on three border posts that killed nine border officers, the rights group said in a statement on Thursday.

The group said it has heard accounts of Myanmar's security forces, led by the military, firing at villagers from helicopter gunships, torching hundreds of homes, carrying out arbitrary arrests and raping women and girls.</s>INTERNATIONAL NEWS - Myanmar is seeking the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority from its territory, a senior UN official has told the BBC.

Armed forces have been killing Rohingya in Rakhine state, forcing many to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, says John McKissick of the UN refugee agency.

The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been conducting counter-insurgency operations since coordinated attacks on border guards in October.

Burmese officials say Rohingyas are setting fire to their own houses in northern Rakhine state. The BBC cannot visit the area to verify what is occurring there as journalists and aid workers have been barred.

The Rohingya, who number about one million, are seen by many of Myanmar's Buddhist majority as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.</s>TEKNAF, Bangladesh -- Myanmar is engaged in "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims, a U.N. official has said, as reports emerged Friday of troops shooting at villagers as they tried to flee.

Thousands of desperate people have pushed over the border into Bangladesh in the last few days, bringing with them horrifying stories of gang rape, torture and the systematic killing of their ethnic group.

John McKissick, head of the United Nations refugee agency in the Bangladeshi border town of Cox's Bazar, said troops in Myanmar were "killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river" into Bangladesh.

The U.N. says up to 30,000 Rohingya, a stateless ethnic group, have abandoned their homes in Myanmar, desperate to escape the soldiers that have poured into the strip of land where they live near the Bangladesh border.

Dhaka says thousands are massed on the border, but has refused urgent international appeals to let them in, instead calling on Myanmar to do more to stop people fleeing.

"It's very difficult for the Bangladeshi government to say the border is open because this would further encourage the government of Myanmar to continue the atrocities and push them out until they have achieved their ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar," McKissick said.

Vivian Tan, a press officer for the U.N. agency, said McKissick was "recounting what different sources, including new arrivals, have told him about the conditions they fled" and added the reports were "very worrying."

Farmer Deen Mohammad was among the thousands who evaded stiffened border patrols, sneaking into the Bangladeshi border town of Teknaf four days ago with his wife, two of their children and three other families.

"They (Myanmar's military) took my two boys, aged nine and 12 when they entered my village. I don't know what happened to them," Mohammad, 50, told AFP.

"They took women in rooms and then locked them from inside. Up to 50 women and girls of our village were tortured and raped."

Mohammad said houses in his village were burned, echoing similar testimony from other recent arrivals.

One Rohingya man, who asked not to be named, told AFP in Myanmar that troops had stormed into a neighboring village early Friday morning and fired indiscriminately on residents as they tried to escape.</s>Muslim police women stand guard during a Muslim rally against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims, outside the Embassy of Myanmar in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo: AP)

Teknaf, Bangladesh: The brutal gangrape that Habiba and her sister endured is a story that is becoming depressingly familiar among the thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh to escape the violence of Myanmar's soldiers.

"They tied both of us to the bed and raped us one by one," said 20-year-old Habiba, who has now found shelter with a Rohingya refugee family a few kilometres (miles) from the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

"We're almost starving here. But at least no one is coming here to kill or torture," said Hashim Ullah, Habiba's older brother who escaped with his sisters.

Habiba and her sister Samira, 18, say they were raped in their home in Udang village by troops who then burnt down their house.

"They torched most of the houses, killed numerous people including our father and raped many young girls," said Habiba, who agreed to be identified in this story.

"One of the soldiers told us before leaving that they will kill us if they see us around the next time they come here. Then they torched our house."

Widespread allegations of rape have raised fears that Myanmar's security forces are systematically using sexual violence against the stateless Rohingya.

The violence has forced thousands to flee, prompting a UN official to accuse Myanmar of carrying out "ethnic cleansing" of the Muslim minority.

Ullah and his siblings escaped after taking the family's $400 savings and walking to the Naf River that separates southern Bangladesh from Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The trio spent four days hiding in the hills with hundreds of other Rohingya families, before they found a boat owner willing to take them to Bangladesh.

"He asked for all of our money," Ullah said.

The boat owner left them on a small island near the border.

The siblings walked across the scrubland until they found a Rohingya family who offered them shelter.

Similar stories of violence and dispossession fill the rows of plastic-roofed shacks that have become the only refuge for thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled Rakhine state.

The escapees have told of gang rapes, torture and murder being carried out by Myanmar troops in the small strip of land that has been under military control after deadly raids on police border posts last month.

Foreign journalists and independent investigators have been barred from entering the area.

While the military and government have rejected the charges, rights groups have long accused the military of using rape as a weapon of war in several other ethnic conflicts which simmer in the country's borderlands.

Thailand-based NGO the Womens League of Burma has documented 92 cases of sexual violence by fighters between 2010 and 2015, which they say have been used "as a means of shaming and destroying ethnic communities".

Fears of Muslim men violating Buddhist women have also long stirred the hatred of hardline nationalists in Myanmar.

Allegations Muslims raped Buddhists sparked sectarian clashes in 2012 that drove tens of thousands of Rohingya into displacement camps and riots two years later near Mandalay.

But the volume of rape allegation among the Rohingya fleeing Rakhine suggest a pattern of abuse by Myanmar's army beyond anything documented before.

Mujibullah arrived in Bangladesh on Monday with his sister Muhsena.

The pair fled after four soldiers tried to rape her. The soldiers were tying Muhsena, 20, to a pole in their village when Mujibullah intervened, receiving a brutal beating in exchange.

"One soldier tried to hack me with a knife as I threw myself to them, begging them not to destroy her life," Mujibullah said, showing an inch-long wound on his palm.

Muhsena stood close to her brother as he spoke to AFP, but she choked up every time she tried to speak.

Hundreds of thousands of registered Rohingya refugees have been living on the Bangladesh side of the border for decades, having fled violence and poverty across the border.

In Myanmar the Rohingya are seen as illegal immigrants and labelled "Bengali", even though many have lived there for generations.

They are denied citizenship and face severe restrictions on movement, work and basic access to education and hospitals.

But Dhaka has resisted urgent international appeals to open its border to avert a humanitarian crisis, instead telling Myanmar it must do more to prevent the stateless Rohingya minority from entering.</s>The conflict in Rakhine has sent hundreds of Rohingya Muslims fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh and poses a serious challenge to leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who swept to power last year on promises of national reconciliation.

At least 86 people are reported to have been killed in escalating violence that has displaced about 30,000 in the region's most serious bloodshed since hundreds were killed in communal clashes in 2012.

The Malaysian foreign ministry called on all parties involved to refrain from actions that could aggravate the situation.

"Malaysia also calls on the government of Myanmar to take all the necessary actions to address the alleged ethnic cleansing in the northern Rakhine State," it said in a statement.

"The ministry will summon the ambassador of Myanmar to convey the government of Malaysia’s concern over this issue," it added, without giving a timeframe.

Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims marched in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, condemning the bloody crackdown on the persecuted minority and slamming Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi for her inaction.

Protesters demanded humanitarian aid for Rakhine, and urged that the military seize all attackers.

"The Myanmar government says the claims are all fabricated but they are not fabricated," Rohingya community leader Muhammed Noor told reporters, referring to reports of incidents of killing, rapes of wives and daughters and home burnings.

"This movement has to continue, to pressure the government to stop the killing."

This week, Muslim-majority Malaysia it was considering pulling out from a regional soccer tournament co-hosted by Myanmar in protest against the crackdown. But it later decided to continue.

Protests were also held simultaneously in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring Thailand, and in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

Protesters in Jakarta called for the Nobel panel to cancel its award to Suu Kyi.

Indonesia is "ready and willing" to help Myanmar initiate dialogue, its foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, said this week.

Many among the Buddhist majority in Myanmar view its 1.1 million Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Persecution and poverty led thousands of Rohingya to flee Myanmar following the violence between Buddhists and Muslims there four years ago. Many of them were smuggled or trafficked to Thailand, Malaysia and beyond.</s>Rohingya Muslims in Burma are being ethnically cleansed, according to a UN official, and government soldiers have allegedly killed children and raped women in the northern Rakhine state.

Burmese troops have been conducting counter insurgency operations in the region against Rohingya militants, but the fallout is said to have been bloody, with numerous reports of atrocities emerging from Rohingya refugees.

But despite nature of the allegations, there has been relatively little media coverage of the violence.

Some Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh because of the fighting – but the authorities there have now barred them from entry to the country.

Those Rohingya that managed to reach Bangladesh said Burmese troops were "killing men, shooting them, slaughtering children, raping women, burning and looting houses, forcing these people to cross the river (into Bangladesh)," according to John McKissick, head of the United Nations refugee agency in the Bangladeshi border town of Cox's Bazar.

He continued: “It's very difficult for the Bangladeshi government to say the border is open because this would further encourage the government of Myanmar to continue the atrocities and push them out until they have achieved their ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority in Myanmar.”

Vivian Tan, a press officer for the UN agency, said Mr McKissick was "recounting what different sources, including new arrivals, have told him about the conditions they fled" and added the reports were "very worrying".

The government said it was "disappointed" by Mr McKissick's remarks.

But they were welcomed by Phil Robertson, Deputy Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch (HRW) a monitoring group.

He told The Independent: “It’s refreshing to see this senior UN official in Bangladesh speak truth to power about what is happening in Rakhine state now, even if it did spark a sadly nonsensical reply from the Myanmar government.

"We’ve seen ethnic cleansing in Rakhine state before, when HRW documented ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya in 2012. No one was held responsible for those atrocities, everything was swept under the rug by the Myanmar government.

"No one should forget either that that the Myanmar military conducted similar security sweeps and committed atrocities against the Rohingya in 1978 and 1992, driving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh in both instances."

The Rohingya people are a Muslim minority and have their own language. Despite living in Rakhine in Burma, they are much maligned within their own country and have often suffered discrimination and persecution at the hands of hard line Buddhist nationalists.

Mr Robertson continued: "It’s time for the Myanmar government to urgently allow access for a new, UN assisted investigation to take place into the torching of villages and serious rights abuses now occurring in parts of Maungdaw township – and be prepared to hold the perpetrators accountable."

An attack killing nine Burmese government border guards, by suspected Rohingya militants, in October led to the “collective punishment” of the minority group, the UNHCR's Mr McKissick said.

While the Burmese authorities insist the military operation is aimed at routing out militants, Rohingya who have made it out of Rakhine into Bangladesh say government troops have been killing and burning down villages.

One of these refugees was farmer Deen Mohammad, who told AFP: "They (Myanmar's military) took my two boys, aged nine and 12 when they entered my village. I don't know what happened to them."

"They took women in rooms and then locked them from inside. Up to 50 women and girls of our village were tortured and raped."

Access to journalists and aid workers has been blocked, preventing the outside world from knowing what is really going on in Rakhine.

However, HRW has released satellite imagery which it said showed the razing of Rohingya villages in the state. As of 21 November, 1,250 Rohingya buildings had been destroyed, the group said.

Mr Robertson said the government had been seeking to "repress and rebut negative media stories about their actions in Rakhine state from day one" of the crisis. He cited the sacking of Myanmar Times journalist Fiona MacGregor after she wrote a story in the newspaper reporting on the Rohingya's plight.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who famously led democracy efforts in the country, has been accused of failing to protect the Rohingya. Despite holding enormous influence in Burma, she has remained quiet, only saying an investigation into the reports of atrocities was underway in accordance with the law.

International criticism is growing and the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, has condemned the lockdown as "unacceptable".

Malaysia, which has a sizable Rohingya community, has said it will “will summon the ambassador of Myanmar to convey the government of Malaysia's concern over this issue,” according to a foreign office statement.

It added: “Malaysia also calls on the government of Myanmar to take all the necessary actions to address the alleged ethnic cleansing in the northern Rakhine State.”

Protests were held in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok and Dhaka against the alleged ethnic cleansing.</s>Six year-old Noor Sahara, a young Rohingya girl whose mother is missing and who crossed over the border with her neighbour and her nephew, poses for a photograph near a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district on Wednesday.

The foreign office has handed a formal letter to Myanmar asking the authorities to intervene so that the Rohingya Muslims fleeing the conflict-zone can return to their homes.

Bangladesh has expressed “great concern” over the ongoing crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State where a military operation against “Islamist jihadists” has triggered a humanitarian emergency.

The foreign office has handed a formal letter to Myanmar asking the authorities to intervene so that the Rohingya Muslims fleeing the conflict-zone can return to their homes.

In a meeting with Myo Myint Than, Myanmar’s envoy in Dhaka, the foreign office has requested Myanmar to take immediate steps to take back the Rohingyas already entered Bangladesh recently, sources said. Additional Foreign Secretary Kamrul Ahsan later told reporters that Bangladesh is looking forward to a peaceful resolution of the ongoing crisis.

Tension has been rife on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border after militants allegedly linked to Aqa Mul Mujahidin group launched attacks on Myanmar’s border police and the army, resulting in the deaths of a dozen law enforcers early this month. The Myanmar Army has since been conducting operations in Rakhine, home for the country’s over a million Rohingya people.

Meanwhile, the local commanders of the Bangladesh Border Guard and Myanmar Border Police held a meeting in Cox’s Bazar, a border town, on Wednesday to discuss migration and security issues.

Local media reported that hundreds of Rohingyas were now floating in boats in the Naaf river, struggling to enter Bangladesh territory. Bangladesh has already tightened its border security by deploying more personnel to prevent a further influx of Rohingyas as officials say the country already hosts a large number such refugees from Myanmar.

Despite tight security, many Rohingya families have entered Bangladesh along river routes after the latest crisis broke out. In some cases, the border security guards pushed them back after giving humanitarian assistance.

The UNHCR on November 18 urged Bangladesh to keep its border with Myanmar open for the Rohingyas.</s>(CNN) They come by the thousands.

Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state have flooded across the border into Bangladesh.

"If (the military) finds any boys aged above 10 years old, they kill them. Men are also being picked up by the military," said Lalu Begum.

"When the military came, we fled from our home. I don't know if my husband is dead or alive."

Begum, currently staying at the Kutupalong camp in southern Bangladesh, told CNN several women in her village were raped by regime soldiers.

"When they see pretty ladies, they ask for water, then they get inside the house and rape them," she said.

An estimated one million Rohingya live in Rakhine, where they are a persecuted, stateless ethnic minority. The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, does not officially recognize the Rohingya, regarding them as illegal Bengali immigrants, despite many being able to trace their roots back in Myanmar for generations.

John McKissick, a UN refugee agency official based in Bangladesh, said the Rohingya are "the most oppressed people in the world."

"It seems to be the aim of the Myanmar military to ethnically cleanse this population," he told CNN.

The refugees in Kutupalong said they left their homes in the middle of the night, trekking from village to village to try and evade the soldiers and make it to the Naf River to cross into Bangladesh.

"It took me four days," Begum said. "When our village was set on fire, we moved to another village, and continued to change our position. This way we came to the riverside."

Along the perilous journey, many lost family members.

"When we started our journey, there were six of us. We lost three members of our family," Lalu Begum's sister-in-law Nassima Khatun told CNN.

"My husband and son were killed, and another son went missing."

CNN is unable to independently verify these reports from refugees -- or the videos posted on social media appearing to show the violence and casualties inside Rakhine -- as the Rohingya area is currently under what the UN terms "lockdown," with access to media and aid agencies blocked.

"We have requested the government to provide us with access, so we can estimate the actual numbers," McKissick said.

"We ourselves see (the refugees) fleeing across the border, coming inside Bangladesh, in the forests, on the main roads, in the villages, in the makeshift camps."

For many, reaching the border does not mean an end to suffering.

Bangladesh has tightened security to try and push refugees back, as the country struggles to cope with the influx.

Thousands of people from Myanmar have already crossed, and the Bangladeshi government said "thousands more have been reported to be gathering at the border."

The government even summoned the Dhaka-based ambassador of Myanmar on Wednesday to express concern at the "continued deteriorating situation (in Rakhine) following the country's military crackdown."

Myanmar's government has denied reports of human rights abuses in Rakhine, claiming that the military is carrying out "clearance operations" targeting suspected "violent attackers" who killed nine border guards on October 9, according to state media.

Since then, state media said more than 100 people have been killed, and around 600 others have been arrested.

"The scale of the problem inside northern Rakhine State where Rohingyas are actually trapped is deplorable," McKissick said.

"The government of Myanmar is engaging in collective punishment against the Rohingya ethnic minority."

"These alarming new satellite images confirm that the destruction in Rohingya villages is far greater and in more places than the government has admitted," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"The apparent arson attacks against five Rohingya villages is a matter of grave concern for which the Burmese government needs to investigate and prosecute those responsible."

"Myanmar needs to follow international law and respect human rights, and they're not doing that right now, and it seems that the democratically elected government does not have control over the military," McKissick said.

CNN has reached out to Suu Kyi's office for comment on multiple occasions but has not received a response.

Begum said it was the government's lack of action that caused her to leave.

"In our villages where we use to live, there are no Rohingya Muslims left. All of them fled from their homes," she said.

For Nassima Khatun and many other refugees, returning to Myanmar is simply not an option, at least until the violence is over.

"We left all of our belongings back there. We left everything to save our lives. Now, how can we go back?" Khatun said.

"They will kill us."
A United Nations official accuses Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya.