Gambia urges Coup leaders to protect Rohingya
The Gambia, which lodged a lawsuit against Myanmar in 2019 seeking to prevent a genocide of the Rohingya minority, on Wednesday demanded that coup leaders there protect the group.
“We are gravely concerned that the same military leadership that marginalised the Rohingya has now seized full control of the Myanmar government,” the information ministry said in a statement.
“We fear they may launch another so-called “clearance operation’’ to rid the country of the approximately 600,000 Rohingya who survived the last round of human rights violence,” said the statement, adding that Banjul was “monitoring events very closely.”
Since August 2017, around 740,000 Rohingya have sheltered in neighbouring Bangladesh, fleeing the ravages of the Myanmar military and Buddhist militias.
The exact number of Rohingya killed in the violence is unknown but humanitarian groups estimate the toll at several thousand.
The Gambia, a small English-speaking country in West Africa, had the support of the 57 members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in lodging the suit against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
