Nigeria compares Myanmar crisis to Bosnia

UNITED NATIONS: Nigeria´s President Muhammadu Buhari urged fellow leaders at the United Nations General Assembly to condemn Myanmar´s "ethnic cleansing" of the Rohingya people.

Comparing the situation in Myanmar´s Rakhine province to the massacres in Bosnia in 1995 and Rwanda in 1994, the leader of Africa´s most populous nation declared: "The international community cannot remain silent."

More than 420,000 people have fled violence in Rakhine, which Buhari said bears the hallmarks of a "state-backed program of brutal depopulation" targeting Rohingya on the basis of their ethnicity and Muslim religion.

"We fully endorse the call by the secretary-general on the government of Myanmar to order a halt to the ongoing ethnic cleansing and ensure the safe return of the displaced Rohingya to their homes in safety and dignity," the 74-year-old leader said.

The 1.1 million-strong Rohingya people have suffered years of discrimination in Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship even though many have longstanding roots in the country.