Hundreds of desperate Rohingya Muslims are still pouring over the Myanmar border into Bangladesh every week, bringing harrowing accounts of torture and murder, six months after a military crackdown sparked the massive refugee crisis.

One of the recent arrivals, Nur Mohammad, said his village in Myanmar's Rakhine state was surrounded by Buddhist vigilantes for days before they were allowed to leave.

"The Moghs [Buddhists] torched our houses, kept us confined and starving," Mohammad said. "Villages are razed to the ground. We walked for days through mountains to arrive here." Thirty-year-old Enayetullah was among the 200 Rohingya who crossed the Naf river into Bangladesh on Friday. Most of his neighbors had left earlier, part of a 700,000-strong Rohingya exodus since August 25, leaving behind desolate and burned-out villages.

"We stayed all these months hoping the situation will be fine. But in recent weeks, security forces took away our young men. If they abduct 10, only one returns," Enayetullah told AFP. Enayetullah also accused Myanmar security forces of torching his shop, prompting him and his three brothers to flee their home in Mognapara village near the town of Buthidaung.

The military crackdown in the north of Rakhine has been termed "ethnic cleansing" by the United Nations and the United States. While Bangladesh and Myanmar talk of repatriating the refugees, the influx continues. Some days 200 people cross the border, while on others a few dozen make the perilous journey. So far in February, more than 2,500 have entered the overflowing camps in Bangladesh. But Rohingya leaders bluntly refuse to return. The U.N. says anyone who goes back must be a volunteer, while Myanmar shows no sign of accepting the Rohingya as full citizens.

The children in the camps face a particularly difficult time. The U.N. estimates children are the heads of 5,600 refugee families.

A survey of children's lives inside the camps showed they faced an array of terrors, from girls reporting concerns of harassment near the camp toilets to fears that elephants and snakes could attack them as they collect firewood.

"We cannot expect Rohingya children to overcome the traumatic experiences they've suffered when exposed to further insecurity and fears of violence in the camps," Mark Pierce, country director for Save the Children in Bangladesh, said in a statement, according to AP. The study was prepared jointly by Save the Children, World Vision and Plan International.

"The overwhelming message from these children is that they are afraid," Pierce said. "This is no way for a child to live."

The situation will worsen soon. Seasonal monsoon rains will begin pounding the refugees' plastic-and-bamboo city in April.

At least 9,000 Rohingya were killed in Rakhine state from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24, according to Doctors without Borders. In a report last December, the global humanitarian group said the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of five.

The stateless Rohingya have been the target of communal violence and vicious anti-Muslim sentiment in mainly Buddhist Myanmar for years. Myanmar has denied citizenship to Rohingya since 1982 and excludes them from the 135 ethnic groups it officially recognizes, which effectively renders them stateless. They have long faced discrimination and persecution with many Buddhists in Myanmar calling them "Bengalis" and saying they migrated illegally from Bangladesh, even though they have lived in the country for generations.