Bangladesh Border Clashes

At least two people were killed in Bangladesh after mortar shells fired from Myanmar during clashes there landed across the border, as terrified residents reported heavy fighting and medics treated several with gunshot wounds.

Parts of Myanmar near the 270-kilometer border with Bangladesh have seen frequent clashes since November, when rebel Arakan Army (AA) fighters ended a ceasefire that had largely held since a 2021 coup.

Bangladeshi villagers living close to the border said they were fearful of the fighting, with aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) saying they had treated 17 people wounded in the clashes following fighting at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

"All the patients had gunshot wounds", MSF said. "Two were in life-threatening condition, and five were seriously injured."

Local police chief Abdul Mannan said a Bangladeshi woman, named as 48-year-old Hosne Ara, and an unnamed ethnic Rohingya man had been killed.

"They were sitting in the kitchen... when a mortar hit the place," Ara's daughter-in-law said.

"She was serving lunch to the Rohingya man who was hired by the family for farm work when they were hit."

With conditions deteriorating, the United Nations Security Council was to hold a closed-door meeting regarding Myanmar.

Nine countries including three permanent Security Council members -- Britain, France and the United States -- issued a joint statement expressing concern about the "dire" situation in Myanmar, notably 18 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and 2.6 million displaced from their homes.

Bangladeshi villagers living close to the border said fighting broke out across the frontier last week, with many sending their children away to relatives to escape the conflict.

Bangladesh is already home to around one million Rohingya refugees, driven out of Myanmar in a military crackdown in 2017.