by ARNA | May 4, 2025 | Press Release
The Arakan Rohingya National Alliance (ARNA) expresses deep alarm over the intensifying violence, persecution, and displacement of Rohingya civilians in Northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. Recent reports reveal a disturbing escalation of abuses perpetrated by the Arakan Army (AA), including abductions, forced evictions, religious persecution, and coercive conscription. These actions pose an existential threat to the Rohingya people and demand immediate international response.
On May 2, 2025, four fishermen were abducted at gunpoint by AA fighters while fishing on the Naf River. Taken across the border into Myanmar, they remain missing underscoring the extreme vulnerability of Rohingya on the frontier. This incident is part of a wider campaign of violence. In early May, AA forces raided several Rohingya villages in Maungdaw Township, burning homes, torturing and assaulting civilians, seizing and plundering their properties. In one attack, at least five homes were torched, and over 60 innocent villagers, including old men, women and children, were arrested, beaten and carried away without charges. These deliberate acts of terror reflect a systematic pattern of brutality designed to instill fear in the Rohingya population and to starve them out to Bangladesh.
Simultaneously, the AA has escalated its campaign of forced evictions and property confiscation. Nearly 40 Rohingya villages have reportedly been emptied in northern Rakhine under AA orders. In Buthidaung Township, entire communities have been instructed to evacuate by early May, with each family given a tiny plot on confiscated land away from their original places. Mosques and schools have been closed or repurposed. Particularly egregious was the seizure of the home of Dr. Kamal, a respected Rohingya physician, under false accusation of collaboration with the Myanmar military. These actions appear aimed at permanently erasing Rohingya presence from their ancestral homeland.
Religious persecution has increased manifold. The AA has locked mosques in multiple villages, preventing Muslims from congregating for prayers. In Kin Taung village, newly rebuilt mosques have been sealed and threatened with demolition. Rohingya villagers are also barred from using age-old local graveyards and religious spaces near Buddhist sites. These actions represent flagrant violations of religious freedom and cultural identity.
ARNA is especially concerned by reports of forced conscription and forced labor. The AA is compelling the Rohingya women and girls, aged 18–35, to undergo military recruitment under threat of punishment. Now over 700 Rohingya men have been coerced into road construction and military fortification for the AA. This systematic use of civilians for military purposes is a gross breach of international humanitarian law and international human rights law and it must end immediately.
The resulting humanitarian crisis is reaching catastrophic levels. Since November 2023, over 113,000 Rohingya have fled renewed violence in Rakhine and sought refuge in Bangladesh. This brings the total Rohingya refugee population in Bangladesh to more than 1.3 million. The influx is overwhelming existing camps in Cox’s Bazar. New arrivals are living in overcrowded schools, mosques, and makeshift shelters, lacking access to clean water, sanitation, and healthcare. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urgently appealed for additional land and resources to accommodate this population, but support remains far below what is required.
Given these grave developments, ARNA calls for the following immediate actions:
To the United Nations: Condemn the Arakan Army’s atrocities and take urgent steps through the UN Security Council and its agencies to ensure civilian protection and pursue accountability mechanisms for crimes against the Rohingya.
To ASEAN and regional governments: Apply collective diplomatic pressure to stop the AA’s abuses, ensure humanitarian access, and support Bangladesh in managing the growing refugee burden.
To donor countries and humanitarian organizations: Rapidly increase emergency aid for both displaced Rohingya within Rakhine State and refugees in Bangladesh, prioritizing shelter, food, water, education and medical care.
The Arakan Rohingya National Alliance remains firmly committed to peace, justice, and the rights and freedoms of the Rohingya people. We stand in solidarity with our community and reaffirm our resolve for their honorable repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration with honor, dignity, and security.
Justice delayed is justice denied. The international community must act now to prevent further tragedy, destruction, death, and to restore hope for a peaceful and inclusive future in Arakan for all its people.
For further inquiries, please contact:
secretariat@thearna.org
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