123,000 Rohingya cross into Bangladesh fleeing Myanmar violence

A Rohingya family reaches the Bangladesh border after crossing a creek of the Naf river on the border with Myanmmar, in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf area

Aid agencies have been having difficulties housing refugees after at least 123,000 Rohingya Muslims crossed into Bangladesh in the aftermath of deadly violence which erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine State late last month, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.

"We have an estimate that at least 123,000 people entered Bangladesh after the violence broke out in Rakhine State on 25th August," Joseph Tripura, Spokesman for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Dhaka, told Deutsch Presse-Agentur, dpa.

"The refugees were in desperate need for shelter, food and medical attention," he said, adding that all the old refugee camps, nearby schools and community centres in the south-eastern Cox's Bazar district have been used to house new arrivals.