Thousands of Rohingya Muslims in violence-racked northwest Myanmar are pleading with the authorities for safe passage from two remote villages that are cut off by hostile Buddhists and running short of food.
"We're terrified," Maung Maung, a Rohingya official at Ah Nauk Pyin village, told Reuters by telephone. "We'll starve soon and they're threatening to burn down our houses."
Another Rohingya contacted by Reuters, who asked not to be named, said ethnic Rakhine Buddhists came to the same village and shouted, "Leave, or we will kill you all."