The rise in deadly attacks on Rohingya people in Myanmar’s Rakhine State since May 2024 bears a chilling resemblance to the atrocities committed in August 2017, when the military forced Rohingyas to flee by attacking and burning down settlements. Nearly seven years later, similar scenes of Rohingya men, women, and children being slayed or escaping to neighbouring nations are unfolding, reflecting a continued erasure of Rohingya history and identity. Only this time, the preparator is an ethnic armed group.
The new conscription laws used to recruit the Rohingyas have become a key point of division against the Arakan Army (AA), a powerful ethnic armed group in Rakhine, who were earlier sympathetic to these people but now view them as pawns of the Junta.
The AA has sought to take complete control of the Rakhine State and overthrow military rule, intensifying violence in Rohingya-populated areas.
Since November 2023, the AA has sought to take complete control of the Rakhine State and overthrow military rule, intensifying violence in Rohingya-populated areas. On 17 May, large-scale arson in northern Rakhine’s Buthidaung displaced thousands of Rohingya residents. Subsequently, on 5 August, an attack in Maungdaw, which survivors attributed to the AA, left an unknown number of Rohingya civilians dead. While the ethnic armed group has denied targeting the Rohingyas, evidence suggests otherwise.
Stateless community
The Rohingyas, a Muslim minority community in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, are considered “illegal Bengali immigrants” by the majority population since they are believed to have originated from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. Myanmar's 1982 Citizenship Act denies them citizenship, rendering them virtually stateless. As a result, they have been deprived of fundamental rights like education, freedom of movement, occupation, and even matrimony. They face random arrests, forced labour, and property seizures from time to time.
Historically, the Rohingya have held deep suspicion towards AA, which has been fighting for the autonomy of the Rakhine people since 2020, primarily due to religious divisions. The primarily Muslim Rohingya perceive the predominantly Buddhist AA as aligned with the dominant Bamar section. For its part, the AA has mainly maintained the famous and prevalent understanding that the Rohingya are a migrant population who do not belong in the country.
