At least seven people have been killed over the past few days in western Burma amid sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Muslims, the government said Thursday. The fighting has led to more than 1,000 houses being set on fire, wounding dozens. Extra security has been dispatched to Rakhine, and authorities have extended overnight curfews in the region. In Rakhine, the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority, has claimed persecution at the hand of Burma’s authoritative government. The clashes between the Rohingya and the Buddhist majority flared up in May, after police arrested three Muslim men on the accusation that they had raped and killed a Buddhist woman.
