Fleeing Rohingya civilians massacred near Bangladesh-Myanmar border

Scores of displaced Rohingya civilians were reportedly killed this week while fleeing towards Bangladesh from Maungdaw Township in western Myanmar, according to human rights groups and regime-run media. A statement issued on Wednesday by the Women’s Peace Network (WPN)—an advocacy organisation led by prominent Rohingya human rights activist Wai Wai Nu—claimed at least 200 Rohingya civilians, most of them women and children, had been killed in drone strikes by the Arakan Army (AA), on the Naf River the day before. The drone attacks occurred as Rohingya civilians fled to the river from other areas of Maungdaw Township, an area of northern Rakhine State where the AA has been fighting for territorial control in recent months. The Naf River forms part of Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh. At least ten fleeing civilians also reportedly drowned in a boat destined for Bangladesh that sank on the Naf River on Tuesday, according to reports by Agence Free Press and the Bangladeshi outlet Daily Star, although there was no confirmation that drone or artillery attacks were what caused the boat to sink. At least ten bodies including young children have been recovered, AFP reported, citing a Bangladeshi official. Mobile phone clip from Rakhine State shows the bodies of displaced civilians massacred in Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State (Supplied) Posts on social media contained footage showing the bodies of Rohingya women and children lying on a shore, usually accompanied by accusations that the AA was responsible and had used drones to attack displaced civilians. Local sources confirmed to Myanmar Now that the bodies of women and children who had fled Maungdaw could be seen on the bank of the Naf River. “All perpetrators of atrocities—including the Burmese military and members of the Arakan Army—must be held accountable under international law,” the WPN statement said, using the older term “Burmese” in place of Myanmar. The group also appealed to the United Nations and international community to take action to protect the Rohingya people still in Myanmar from further atrocities. “The WPN calls upon the UN, the UN Security Council, and the international community to act for the immediate protection of Rohingya civilians remaining in Rakhine State,” the statement said. On Wednesday, the junta-operated outlet Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM) also accused the AA, which has been fighting fiercely against the Myanmar military for control of Rakhine State since November 2023, of massacring civilians in Maungdaw Township. The GNLM claimed the AA forced the civilians to flee from Maungdaw Township, Rakhine State before the incidents on the Naf River, alleging that AA fighters committed mass rape and indiscriminate slaughter using artillery and drones. “AA terrorists massacred Bengalis, including children, who arranged to flee to other countries,” the GNLM alleged, referring to Rohingya people using language that most in the ethnic community consider derogatory. Still image from a mobile phone video shows children among the Rohingya civilians displaced from Maungdaw Township (Supplied) The Myanmar military does not recognise the Rohingya people’s distinct ethnic identity. “Women and girls were raped and killed,” reports in the GNLM said, adding that the international community should be made aware of the AA’s “acts of terror.” Since June 16, the AA has been issuing public warnings to civilians in Maungdaw, which has a Rohingya majority, to leave the town. Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the AA, flatly denied the allegations about the group’s use of drones against civilians, saying, “We have nothing to do with this incident. We did not do it.” He further alleged that Rohingya militias commanded by the military in Maungdaw Township had been holding Rohingya civilians captive, using them as human shields. “As the fighting intensified around those areas, civilians fled their homes. In response, those terrorist groups and junta troops shelled them with artillery and drones,” he told Myanmar Now. “But then they placed the blame on us, as if we attacked them.” “Regardless of their race and religion, we don’t target the civilians,” he added. “We have to protect them.” Myanmar Now could not independently confirm the accounts accompanying the videos showing the bodies of civilians on social media, or their connection to the incident involving the capsized boat. The Myanmar military has retained control of several outposts in Maungdaw Township including a Border Guard Police station despite weeks of continuous attacks by the AA, which is fighting for full control of the township. A military crackdown in Rakhine State led to the expulsion of more than 700,000 Rohingya people from Rakhine State in 2017, during a spree of ethnically targeted violence that became the subject of an ongoing genocide case in the International Court of Justice. Members of the AA—which is made up mostly of people from Rakhine State’s Buddhist ethnic majority—have also been accused of complicity or participation in violence against the mostly Muslim Rohingya population. Since 2017, nearly one million Rohingya have taken refuge in camps in Bangladesh, where living conditions remain desperately poor. In May, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR) estimated that tens of thousands of civilians had been displaced in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships in Rakhine State, with thousands forced to flee to the border or camps in Bangladesh.

Fleeing Rohingya civilians massacred near Bangladesh-Myanmar border

Rohingya people displaced by conflict in Rakhine State were slaughtered near the Naf River in a catastrophe that junta-run media and other sources blamed on attacks by the Arakan Army—the military’s most powerful foe in the state

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