YANGON: The death toll from recent communal violence in central Myanmar has risen to 43 with more than 1,300 homes and other buildings destroyed, state media reported yesterday.
Sixty-eight people have been arrested in connection with the Buddhist-Muslim unrest, which has left 11,376 people homeless, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.
In total, 163 incidences of violence have been reported in 15 townships, it added. Previously the official death toll stood at 40.
The head of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said yesterday that a contact committee of OIC foreign ministers would gather in the Red Sea port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on April 14 to discuss the violence against Muslims in Myanmar. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu addressed a contact group meeting on the violence and said the organisation was “ready to take all necessary measures and actions to deal with it”.
AFP
