U.N. chief visits Bangladesh amid 'unimaginable' Rohingya atrocities

July 2 (UPI) -- On a visit to Bangladesh Monday, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres asked the international community to ramp up support for the Rohingya population.

Guterres said he's heard the Muslim Rohingya population are one of the most "discriminated against and vulnerable" communities on Earth. Nearly a million Rohingya have escaped to flee violence in Myanmar.

"In Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, I've just heard unimaginable accounts of killing and rape from Rohingya refugees who recently fled Myanmar," Guterres said on Twitter Monday.

"Nothing could've prepared me for the scale of crisis and extent of suffering I saw today in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh," he added. "I heard heartbreaking accounts from Rohingya refugees that will stay with me forever."

Noting that as many as 200,000 Rohingya need to be relocated as they face threat from monsoon season, the U.N. chief appealed to the international community for support.

"It would take just one storm to wash us all away," Rohingya widow Ayesha Begum told the U.N. refugee agency. "I'm terrified for my children. We are at the mercy of god."

Guterres was accompanied on Monday's visit by World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, who's announced nearly $500 million in grant-based support to help Bangladesh address the needs of refugees.

As many as 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 2017, after facing discrimination and violence there -- including accounts of killings, rape and villages torched at the hands of Myanmar's military.

Gueterres said the United Nations will keep pressure on Myanmar.

"We need to put more pressure on Myanmar to make them understand what they should do on this issue," he said.