Several hundred nationalists took to the streets of Myanmar's second largest city to call on the government to declare within three days that there is no Rohingya ethnicity in the country.

Protesters at the unauthorized Mandalay demonstration, which was attended by monks and nationalist activists, demanded that President Htin Kyaw and state counselor-cum-foreign minister, Aung San Suu Kyi, denounce the United States embassy for the use of the word to describe the Muslim minority.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship under the law, which has been widely condemned by rights groups.