UN warns Myanmar conflict blocking Rohingya return

Bloody fighting between Myanmar's army and a separatist movement is proving an "insurmountable barrier" to the return of the country's displaced Rohingya minority, a UN official warned Tuesday. The mostly Muslim Rohingya have been persecuted in Myanmar for decades, with many escaping the 2017 military clampdown labelled a "genocide" by some countries and now finding themselves unable to return as fighting rages in Rakhine state. Rakhine State, their homeland in western Myanmar, has been the site of some of the most intense fighting in the conflict tearing the country apart since the 2021 military coup that overthrew the democratic government. "As to the Rohingya, forcibly displaced again from Myanmar more than eight years ago, the escalating conflict in the country...