At least 56 people have been killed and nearly 2,000 homes destroyed in the latest outbreak of ethnic violence in Myanmar, said an official said on Thursday.
Twenty five men and 31 women were reported dead in four Rakhine state townships in violence between the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities that re-erupted on Sunday, said the official.
In June, ethnic violence in the western state left at least 90 people dead and destroyed more than 3,000 homes. Tens of thousands of people remain in refugee camps. The unrest is one of the worst reported in the region since June, after clashes were set off by the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men in May.
Tensions still simmer in part because the government has failed to find any long-term solution to the crisis other than segregating the two communities in some areas.
