Rohingya lose contact with family members in Buthidaung under siege

One day before the Arakha Army (AA) announced its capture of northern Rakhine State’s Buthidaung on Saturday, the town’s large Rohingya population were warned to leave, according to sources with ties to the community. Located near Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh, Buthidaung is home to tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims. At around 4pm on May 17, a 30-year-old Rohingya man who had previously left the state received a call from his father, still in Buthidaung, warning of escalating tension. “‘Son, the situation is getting worse,’” he recalled his father telling him during the seven-minute call. “‘We don’t know if we will still be alive after tonight.” His father also said that on the same day, a nearby high school sheltering hundreds of displaced people had been hit by a bomb believed to have been dropped from a drone. While initial local reports from Rohingya sources blamed the AA for striking the site, the political wing of the Rakhine ethnic armed organisation—the United League of Arakan (ULA)—released a statement on Monday declaring that it was the junta that had launched a “prolonged aerial attack” on Buthidaung on the day in question, and the AA was not involved in the destruction of the town. It was not known how many people were injured or killed in the May 17 airstrike. The ULA said that the AA had instructed people to evacuate Buthidaung, as it had in other Rakhine State towns where offensives had been launched, such as Maungdaw and Sittwe, and that it had been assisting locals in moving to safer areas. “I have no information about my family,” the 30-year-old man who spoke to his father on May 17 told Myanmar Now on Monday. “I have no clue whether they are alive or dead.” He noted that his parents, in their late 50s, struggle with chronic health issues but could not leave the state earlier without permission from the military authorities, despite being among the few Rohingya who hold identification cards. Myanmar Now was unable to speak to those still in the area due to a junta-imposed telecommunications blackout. Another 40-year-old Rohingya man who left Rakhine State in February to avoid conscription by the AA—which, along with the military and Rohingya militia groups has reportedly been forcibly recruiting Rohingya men—said that his mother, wife and two children had gone missing shortly after fleeing their home in Buthidaung on the night of May 17. They had spoken briefly on the phone the following morning, and the family said they were seeking out safety. “As it has been three days without any contact, I have not slept for these three days,” he told Myanmar Now on Monday, ending the call by saying, “I am afraid I have lost everything.” A third Rohingya man from Buthidaung said that when the AA had ordered them to leave before the town was besieged, thousands fled with only backpacks. “[My relatives] told me that about 45 AA soldiers came by the main road and started firing their guns into the sky, warning all Rohingya people to leave the town immediately,” he explained. “As they ran to the paddy field for safety, my family told me they saw houses on fire everywhere.” The man said that his aunt’s house was among those that were burnt, but the first two men who Myanmar Now spoke to said that they had been told that their homes remained intact. Myanmar Now was unable to confirm which group had carried out the arson attacks or the number of residences destroyed. https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/rakhine-ethnic-armed-organisation-closer-to-taking-control-of-myanmar-bangladesh-border In a statement released on Sunday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he was “deeply alarmed by reports of renewed violence and property destruction in Buthidaung Township” which has “result[ed] in the displacement of potentially tens of thousands of civilians, mainly Rohingya.” He urged the AA and the Myanmar military to “pause fighting, protect civilians, allow immediate and unhindered humanitarian access” and comply “unconditionally” with international law, including measures already ordered by the International Court of Justice regarding the protection of the Rohingya. Since the launch of its offensive against the Myanmar junta, the AA—formerly known as the Arakan Army—has claimed control over nine Rakhine State towns: Ramree, Pauktaw, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Rathedaung, Myebon, and Buthidaung. The group also controls Paletwa in neighbouring southern Chin State. The ethnic armed organisation has also continued challenging the military across southern Rakhine State townships including Thandwe, Ann, Taungup and Kyaukphyu, as well as Maungdaw in the north.

Rohingya lose contact with family members in Buthidaung under siege

Thousands of Rohingya residents flee the northern Rakhine State town, over which the Arakha Army has claimed control and where the junta has imposed a telecommunications blackout

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