They said many people were severely injured and many had not eaten for days while drifting on the river waiting for opportunities to try to get into Bangladesh.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In Bangladesh, border officials said they believed several boats with Rohingyas on board were waiting to try to cross the river from Burma.

BBC: Burma acknowledges mass burnings in Rakhine unrest

That day I walked away from the waiting women, into the trees and towards the water: the same river that further on curled around the houses, so the village lay within its embrace like a woman in the crook of her lover's arm.

NPR: 'Ancestor Stones:' Life and War in Sierra Leone