Danger for Rohingya civilians grows as war intensifies near Bangladesh-Myanmar border

Correction: Earlier versions of this story misstated the estimated numbers of displaced civilians in Rakhine State’s Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. A May 24 statement by the United Nations office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR) estimated that 45,000 displaced Rohingya people—a figure reported by Myanmar Now and other outlets—had fled to the Naf River. The UN OHCHR corrected this number to 4,000 on May 27, attributing the difference to an “inadvertent typographical error.” When Myanmar Now corrected the figure we cited it, in error, as the estimated total number of recently displaced people in the area before making further corrections to clarify that the UN estimate of 4,000 specifically refers to those displaced people who had fled to the Naf River. In addition to correcting the figure in accordance with the UN update, we have altered the story to avoid confusion about the total number of people recently displaced in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships, which the UN estimates to be in the tens of thousands. Rohingya people face mounting threats amid the ongoing conflict for control of Rakhine State, which according to UN officials’ estimates has displaced tens of thousands in recent days from Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships and caused an unknown number of civilian deaths.Out of the estimated tens of thousands forced to flee their homes, the United Nations office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said last Friday that some 4,000 Rohingya people from Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships—fleeing battles between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA, also known as the Arakha Army), among other dangers—have fled to the banks of the Naf River, which forms the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar. “We are receiving frightening and disturbing reports from northern Rakhine State in Myanmar of the impacts of the conflict on civilians’ lives and property,” said the OHCHR statement, issued by spokesperson Liz Throssell. “Some of the most serious allegations concern incidents of killing of Rohingya civilians and the burning of their property.” During the recent takeover of Buthidaung by the AA on May 18, large sections of the town reportedly burned down, exacerbating the mass displacement of Rohingya as well as some Rakhine civilians. “One survivor described seeing dozens of dead bodies as he fled the town. Another survivor said that he was among a group of displaced numbering in the tens of thousands, who were blocked by the Arakan Army on the road west linking Buthidaung to Maungdaw,” Throssell said. Maungdaw is located southwest of Buthidaung, nearer to the Naf River. A 28-year-old Rohingya man from Maungdaw, who asked to be identified only as “Aziz”, told Myanmar Now that most people from Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships’ rural areas have fled for Maungdaw’s urban centre, Yangon, or Bangladesh while others without the means to leave have remained trapped in their villages. He claimed the Myanmar military for the most part has not fired directly on AA bases, and that Rohingya villages have had to bear the brunt of their mortar fire and long-range shelling. “Now most of the rural areas are under AA control, while the Myanmar military is still holding some parts of the town,” he said, referring to Maungdaw. Aziz was separated from his family during a bloody crackdown targeting Rohingya people in northern Rakhine State in 2017, which is now the subject of a UN genocide case. The Myanmar military, which forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, attempted to justify the crackdown as a retaliation for terrorist attacks that they attributed to the Rohingya militia group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Aziz remained in Maungdaw to work with one of his uncles while the rest of his family fled to Bangladesh. For the past seven years, he has only been able to contact his parents by phone in the refugee camp where they have been staying in Bangladesh. “It was very sad. I miss them all the time. That’s why I always phone them as often as I can,” he said. “I want to be reunited with my family, that’s why I am going to leave this place on Sunday,” he told Myanmar Now, adding that conditions in Maungdaw have recently become much worse. Since launching an offensive against the military in November 2023, the AA has captured most of northern Rakhine State. The group—the largest and most powerful ethnic armed organisation in the state—is continuing to fight the military for control of Maungdaw, the state capital of Sittwe, Kyaukphyu Township, and townships in the south. The Myanmar military has sent more troops to Maungdaw to counter the AA’s attacks, according to Aziz, and they are sometimes accompanied by Rohingya recruits believed to be taken from refugee camps in Bangladesh and forcibly pressed to serve in the army. “They brought them from the jetty in their trucks and took them to various bases in town,” he said, adding that junta soldiers have gone to every house in the town, including his uncle’s, pressuring Rohingya people to join them for protection. The military’s forced recruitment of Rohingya people has stoked interethnic tensions in the state, and is widely understood as part of a divide-and-rule strategy in a state where the military has lost significant ground since last year. At other times, AA members in plain clothes warn town residents not to go out after 6pm, Aziz said. “I also heard that the AA was slaughtering the Rohingya men in Buthidaung, saying they have supported the Myanmar military,” he added. “It’s really challenging to live here under these circumstances,” Aziz said, noting that people now fear for their lives amid daily bombings, artillery shelling, gunfire and arson attacks, leaving little choice but to flee. Aziz told Myanmar Now about his plans to leave for Bangladesh with others from Maungdaw. “We will pay a Bangladeshi broker who will give us a boat ride to the other side,” he said on Friday. Aziz and two of his friends are each paying 30,000 Bangladeshi taka (US $255) to the brokers, who plan to cross the border and security checkpoints by posing as commercial fishermen. The brokers said it would take up to three hours depending on security conditions, according to Aziz. On Sunday, Aziz sent a follow-up text message via Facebook: “Safely landed in Bangladesh.” The UN has called on Bangladesh and other countries to provide effective protection to those in need, in keeping with international law.

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