Beaten, shot at, hacked to death

They have come in their thousands, crossing hills and rivers, marshes and rice paddies for the chance to cross into Bangladesh and escape the mass killings they say are being perpetrated against their people.

The UN estimates that, in just one week, almost 50,000 Rohingya -- a stateless, ethnic Muslim minority who largely inhabit Myanmar's western Rakhine state have fled escalating violence.

Around 27,000 refugees have crossed into Bangladesh since last Friday, and a further 20,000 remain stuck in no-man's land between the two East Asian nations.

The testimonies of Rohingya sheltering in overcrowded Bangladeshi refugee camps are harrowing.

"They are beating us, shooting at us and hacking our people to death," Hamida Begum, one refugee who has left everything behind in a desperate attempt to flee with at least their lives.

"Many people were killed. Many women were raped and killed. We are very poor. My husband is a day laborer," she said.

"We used to have two square meals a day. But we lost everything after the war started," she said, referring to the outbreak of violence last Friday when Rohingya militants staged co-ordinated attacks on border posts, killing 12 security officers.

In response, the military intensified "clearance operations," driving thousands of people from their homes.

Government officials said Thursday that at least 399 people had been killed in fighting since last Friday. Of those, 370 were "terrorists," they said. However, activists say the military has killed women, children and innocent men.

Both sides also blame each other for torching houses. The government says Rohingya militants have burned down more than 2,300 homes. The Rohingya says it's the military that has attacking their houses.

Begum alleges that her family was tortured by the military and their accomplices, and that others were killed after failing to pay the soldiers a ransom.

Aid organizations and the UN have slammed the Myanmar government for its treatment of the group.

"Decades of persistent and systematic human rights violations, including the very violent security responses to the attacks since October 2016, have almost certainly contributed to the nurturing of violent extremism, with everyone ultimately losing," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Thursday.

There are many ethnic groups in Myanmar "but only the Rohingya are hated by the government," said Mohammad Harun, who was among those fleeing.

The Rohingya are a minority Muslim population in Myanmar, however they're denied the right to citizenship despite having lived there for generations.

Another refugee interviewed, said the military ordered them to stay inside their homes.

"If we stay inside then they set our houses on fire, shooting at us or slaughtering us," Nobin Shuna says. "Muslims have no rights."

She says the military came to her village last Friday and killed five people, including her son.

"They were tortured to death. Our houses were set on fire. We lost everything there," she said.

"How could we survive? I have no money. After seeing the massacre, I traveled all the way to the Bangladesh border. I left my home four days ago. Now where would I go? My son was killed."

And so now these thousands trek westwards, towards the relative safety of neighboring Bangladesh.

An estimated 200,000 to 500,000 Rohingya refugees already live a precarious existence here, most in squalid, overcrowded camps.