Bangladesh Sends Drone to Monitor Border with Myanmar: Report

The Bangladeshi Ministry of Home Affairs has deployed advanced drones to monitor its shared border with neighboring Myanmar following months of tensions concerning a potential renewed Rohingya exodus.

The ministry has recently sent drones to the Coast Guard St. Martin station and Border Guard Bangladesh to improve border surveillance, The Daily Star reported.

“We recommended monitoring the border with drones. Drone surveillance is ongoing in areas where Rohingya refugees live, including Bhasan Char,” chief of the parliamentary watchdog Benazir Ahmed said.

New Rohingya Exodus?

Tensions between the countries increased in mid-August when mortar shells fired from Myanmar landed on the Bangladeshi side of the border for weeks.

One mortar killed a Rohingya teenager and injured at least six others in the no-man’s land near Bandarban’s Tumbru Bazar border area. 

Around 4,000 Rohingya refugees reside in the area after fleeing Myanmar’s military crackdown in 2017.

Bangladesh’s foreign ministry has summoned Myanmar’s envoy in Dhaka four times since August over her country’s repeated military attacks.

“We lodged a strong protest note against the violations of air and land space, and warned Myanmar that such actions should not be repeated,” Retired Rear Admiral Khurshed Alam said.

“We said the conflict between the Arakan Army and Myanmar military is your internal matter. How you solve it is up to you. No mortar shells or bullets should land on our side. You have to take responsibility for that.”

The Myanmar military junta has faced an escalating conflict with the ethnic Arakan Army armed group in the Northern Rakhine and Chin states since early August.