Rakhine exodus leaves ghostland behind

Scorched earth: An aerial view of a burned Rohingya village near Maungdaw. — Reuters

Ale Than Kyaw: Torched villages and unharvested paddy fields stretch to the horizon in Myanmar’s violence-gutted Rakhine state, where a dwindling number of Muslim Rohingya remain trapped in limbo after an army crackdown coursed through the region.

A rare military-organised trip for foreign media by helicopter to Maungdaw district – the epicentre of a crisis that exploded in late August – showed a landscape devoid of people, with the emerald paddy fields scarred by the blackened patches of destroyed Rohingya villages.