The ghettos are among several new developments to have occurred in Sittwe since violence broke out between Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim communities in June 2012. Their populations are gradually thinning out: reports of a Rohingya massacre in early January by Rakhine mobs and soldiers in Maungdaw in the north of the state quickly spread south, causing residents of Bhumi and poorly-guarded refugee camps nearby to up sticks and move to camps closer to the sea. Those who have remained in the quarter wander listlessly through the streets: only a year and a half ago they would travel into the town centre to trade, shop, visit the doctor or take their children to school – those routine activities are now off-limits, and confined to a two-kilometer square radius, life has been whittled down to its most basic form.