COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Rohingya militants in Myanmar, whose raids sparked an army crackdown that has seen nearly 300,000 Muslim Rohingya flee to Bangladesh, on Sunday (Sep 10) declared a unilateral ceasefire but the government said it would not negotiate with "terrorists". "The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) hereby declares a temporary cessation of offensive military operations in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung Townships for a one-month period (10 September 2017 — 09 October 2017) in order to enable humanitarian actors to assess and respond to the humanitarian crisis in Arakan State," the statement read. It urged "all humanitarian actors" to resume aid delivery to "all victims of humanitarian crisis irrespective of ethnic or religious background" during the one-month ceasefire until Oct 9.

International aid programmes in Rakhine have been severely curtailed over safety concerns due to the fighting. 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. Rohingya residents - a stateless, mostly Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar - say the military and Rakhine Buddhists are waging a brutal campaign against them, burning their villages. As for the West, the coverage of a humanitarian crisis shouldn’t be with a one-sided passion; the Rohingya crisis has to be addressed equally like other humanitarian crisis, such as that of the Yazidis in Iraq. For almost half a century, the Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar in droves to escape persecution, with many fleeing to the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian nations often being reported as becoming victims of gang rapes, torture, arson, infanticide, extrajudicial killings and murder by Myanmar security forces.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire to allow humanitarian groups to facilitate aid for Rohingya refugees.