.jpg)
Nov 18. 2017
![](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://www.characters.gr/site/en/stories/world/refugees-world-en&media=https://www.characters.gr/images/stories/1510999193_1.jpg&description=
The two Rohingya Muslim brothers, six-year-old Mohamed Heron and four-year-old Akhter, held each other as they showed burns on their arms and torsos that their uncle says resulted from Myanmar's armed forces firing rockets at their village.
Two of their siblings, one seven years old and the other a 10-month-old infant, died in the attack, according to their uncle Mohamed Inus. Their father was held by the military and has not been heard of since. "These two children survived when our village was fired on with rockets," Inus told at Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Fleeing along with other villagers who abandoned their scorched homes, the boys reached Bangladesh after a three-day trek. At Kutupalong, they were treated for three weeks for their burns at a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinic.
)
Comments * | Click here to view comments
![](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://www.characters.gr/site/en/stories/world/refugees-world-en&media=https://www.characters.gr/images/stories/1510999193_2.jpg&description=
Setara Begum, 12, was among nine siblings in their home in Maungdaw when it was hit by a rocket.
"I saved eight of my nine children from the burning house, but Setara was trapped inside," said her mother, Arafa.
"I could see her crying in the middle of the fire, but it was difficult to save her. By the time we could reach her, she was badly burned," Arafa said.
Setara's father carried her for two days to Bangladesh. The young girl received no treatment for the severe burns to her feet. Her feet healed. But she has no toes.
The trauma has scarred her psychologically. "She has been mute from that day, and doesn't speak to anyone," her mother said. "She only cries silently."
)
Comments * | Click here to view comments
![](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://www.characters.gr/site/en/stories/world/refugees-world-en&media=https://www.characters.gr/images/stories/1510999193_3.jpg&description=
Curled up in a ball, 11-year-old Ansar Allah shows a large, livid scar on his right thigh - the result of a gunshot wound.
"They sprayed us with bullets, as our house was burning," his mother Samara said.
"It was a bullet half the size of my index finger," she said, before adding, "I can't stop thinking, why did God put us in that dangerous situation?"
)
Comments * | Click here to view comments
![](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://www.characters.gr/site/en/stories/world/refugees-world-en&media=https://www.characters.gr/images/stories/1510999193_4.jpg&description=
Suffering burns to his limbs and torso, Mohamed Jabair, 21, had feared that he had also lost his sight in an explosion that ripped through his village home.
Knocked unconscious and badly burned, Jabair was carried by his brother and others for four days to Cox's Bazar.
"I was blind for many weeks and admitted to a government hospital in Cox's Bazar for 23 days. I was frightened that I would be blind forever," he said.
Jabair said money sent by relatives in Malaysia had run out and he could no longer afford treatment.
)
Comments * | Click here to view comments
![](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://www.characters.gr/site/en/stories/world/refugees-world-en&media=https://www.characters.gr/images/stories/1510999193_5.jpg&description=
Bowing to show deep cuts arcing across his scalp, 17-year-old Nur Kamal described how soldiers assaulted him after they found the young shopkeeper hiding in his home in Kan Hpu village in Maungdaw.
"They hit me with a rifle butt on my head first and then with a knife," Kamal said.
His uncle found him unconscious in a pool of blood. It took them two weeks to get to Bangladesh.
"We want justice," Kamal said. "We want the international community to help us obtain justice."
)
Comments * | Click here to view comments
