In-DepthMyanmar

For Rohingya women, nowhere is safe

Having fled for their lives, mostly from what the United Nations (UN) called a ‘textbook’ example of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar’s Rakhine State eight years ago, Rohingya women have become the most vulnerable victims of intensifying violence in Bangladeshi refugee camps

“My village was under a genocidal attack. We had no escape but to run to Bangladesh.” 

Anika*, 29, recalled how she had fled her home—located in Buthidaung Township’s Taung Bazar village in northern Rakhine State—along with her husband and daughter in 2017, escaping the lethal, targeted violence of a “clearing operation” that the Myanmar military carried out on August 25. 

She remembered how the army troops had entered the village, arresting at least 50 people on suspicion of links to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the Rohingya armed group that had claimed responsibility for attacks on police outposts in the township. 

The military’s response, inflicted indiscriminately on entire Rohingya communities, was brutal. 

They committed arson attacks, raped, and killed, forcing more than 700,000—possibly closer to a million—Rohingya people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. These actions ultimately resulted in. . .

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