"Myanmar faced accusations of genocide in a landmark lawsuit filed by Gambia at the UN's top court on Monday (Nov 11) over the Southeast Asian nation's treatment of Rohingya Muslims, Gambia's government said. Gambia said it was acting on behalf of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in bringing the case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The lawsuit accuses mainly Buddhist Myanmar of breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention through a brutal military campaign targeting the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state. The 2017 crackdown forced 740,000 Rohingya to flee over the border into sprawling camps in Bangladesh, in violence that United Nations investigators say amounts to "genocide". "The Gambia is taking this action to seek justice and accountability for the genocide being committed by Myanmar against the Rohingya," Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said in a statement. The court is expected to hold its first hearings in December on Gambia's request for urgent interim measures "to protect the Rohingya against further harm", Gambia's lawyers Foley Hoag said in a statement, describing the case as "historic". Human Rights Watch hailed the move by the tiny west African state, saying it was the "first judicial scrutiny" of Myanmar's alleged crimes against the Rohingya..."