Estimates vary but here’s one credible assessment that alleges “resistence” forces have been murdering Rohingya refugees as they try to cross a border, with nearly half the victims women and children.

A 17-year-old Rohingya from Maungdaw who survived the artillery and drone attacks said that just after 6 p.m. Monday, he saw four drones flying from the southern part of Maungdaw toward the riverbank where about 1,000 Rohingya, including himself, were waiting for boats to cross into Bangladesh.

The man, speaking to the AP by phone Friday from Bangladesh on the condition of anonymity to protect his relatives remaining in Maungdaw, said he and other people jumped into the water as the drones dropped three bombs near where he and 12 of his family members had been standing.

Following the drone attack, about 20 artillery shells also hit the crowd, he said, and he estimated that about 150 people, including children and women, were killed in total, and many others wounded.

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Both men said they believed the Arakan Army was responsible for the attacks, which came from the direction of the group’s encampment south of Maungdaw and resembled drone attacks the group has been making daily on the town itself, which is still held by troops of the military government. The Arakan Army also has a reputation for hostility toward the Rohingya community.

The drones have been a “resistence” signature attack method for several years now, after Myanmar’s 2021 coup.

“The use of drones has created a tectonic shift in Myanmar’s battlefield,” said Angshuman Choudhury, an associate fellow at Delhi-based thinktank Centre for Policy Research. “They have not completely closed the tactical asymmetry between the military and resistance forces, but have diminished it significantly.”

The rapid increase of militarized use of drones within Mayanmar is generally linked to influence of China and the US, specifically events like this a decade ago.

“Our plan was to use an unmanned aircraft to carry 20 kilogrammes of TNT to bomb the area,” said Liu in an interview carried in the Beijing newspaper Global Times on Monday. “The plan was rejected, because the order was to catch him alive.”

It was the first time any Chinese official has spoken openly of the development of drones by the country. So far, only the US, Britain and Israel have used unmanned aircraft on lethal operations outside their own borders.

The Myanmar government military by 2016 operated Chinese armed CH3 drones and by 2020 they were accused of attacks on the Arkan Army. The 2021 military coup, however, flipped everything and “resistence” forces flooded the country with drone warfare.

Both sides denied any responsibility for the drones used in this attack. The UN earlier documented evidence that would suggest the Arkan Army is to blame here again.

The United Nations said it had collected witness testimonies about the killings of Rohingya civilians and the systematic torching of homes. It indicated that these crimes started after the Myanmar military withdrew from these townships and the rebel Arakan Army (AA) advanced.