U.N. rights chief says 'as many as 10,000' flee Myanmar army operations

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends the 44th session of the Human Rights Council at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 30, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights chief said on Tuesday that up to 10,000 people had fled their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state after what she described as heavy fighting in the past week between government troops and ethnic insurgents.

The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNCHR) and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) later said at least 2,800 people had fled according to early estimates but the true number could be "significantly higher" as the "scope and impact" of the reported clashes was not yet fully known.