Three years after exodus, Myanmar erases names of Rohingya villages, U.N. map makers follow suit

FILE PHOTO: Mohammed Rofiq, a Rohingya refugee, poses for a picture in his home in Kutupalong refugee camp, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, August 8, 2020. REUTERS/Stringer

(Reuters) - Three years ago, Myanmar’s military burned the Rohingya village of Kan Kya to the ground and bulldozed over its remains. Last year, the government erased its name from official maps, according to the United Nations.

About 3 miles (5 km) from the Naf River that marks the border between Myanmar’s Rakhine state and Bangladesh, Kan Kya was home to hundreds of people before the army chased 730,000 Rohingya out of the country in 2017 in what the United Nations described as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing."