The international rights group Amnesty International (AI) says newly arrived Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh need urgent access to food, shelter and health care after enduring the worst violence against their communities since Myanmar's military-led campaign in 2017. Bangladesh must stop sending Rohingya back to Myanmar, where they face attacks by the Arakan Army (AA) or indiscriminate military airstrikes by the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF), the rights group urges.
“Once again, the Rohingya people are being driven from their homes and dying in scenes tragically reminiscent of the 2017 exodus. We met people who told us they lost parents, siblings, spouses, children and grandchildren as they fled fighting in Myanmar,” Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said in a statement on Thursday.
“But this time, they are facing persecution on two fronts, from the rebel Arakan Army and the Myanmar military, which is forcibly conscripting Rohingya men. Those lucky enough to make it to Bangladesh do not have enough to eat, a proper place to sleep, or even their own clothes.”
Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority is facing another wave of deadly violence. This time, however, the perpetrators are said to be the Arakan Army, one of several ethnic armed groups fighting the country's ruling junta as well as Myanmar's security forces. Many thousands of Rohingya have been driven from their homes as intense fighting between junta forces and the Arakan Army has engulfed Rakhine State. Most are without adequate food, shelter or medicine. In recent months, tens of thousands have crossed or are waiting to cross the border.
In Rakhine State, the conflict between the MAF and the Arakan Army has continued since November 2023 and now affects 16 out of 17 townships throughout the state, bringing the total number of people currently displaced in Rakhine State to an estimated 570,000.
Both the Myanmar Armed Forces and the AA have committed serious human rights violations and abuses against the Rohingya, including extrajudicial killings, some involving beheadings, abductions, forced recruitment, indiscriminate bombardment of towns and villages with drones and artillery, and arson attacks, according to information documented by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR),
According to OHCHR, such attacks are in sharp contrast to the obligations of all parties under international humanitarian law and the interim measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to protect the Rohingya against the risk of further harm.
In January 2020, the ICJ issued an order directing Myanmar to "take all measures within its power" to prevent the commission of acts defined in the Genocide Convention, including ensuring that its military and all irregular armed units refrain from committing such acts.
Testimonies shared with Amnesty International show how Rohingya families forced to leave their homes in Myanmar have been caught in the middle of increasingly violent clashes between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, one of many non-state armed groups (NSAGs) opposing the junta.
People interviewed by Amnesty who recently sought refuge in Bangladesh said the Arakan Army had unlawfully killed Rohingya civilians, driven them from their homes and left them vulnerable to attacks, allegations the ethnic armed organization denies. These attacks against the Rohingya come on top of indiscriminate airstrikes by the Myanmar military that have killed both Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine civilians.
Hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced within Rakhine State, and tens of thousands of Rohingya have crossed or are waiting to cross the border to seek refuge in Bangladesh, according to the rights group.
The human rights impact of the 2021 military coup in Myanmar has been catastrophic. Myanmar's military has killed more than 5,600 civilians and arrested more than 25,000 people. Since the coup, Amnesty has documented indiscriminate aerial bombardments by the Myanmar military, torture and other ill-treatment in detention, collective punishment and arbitrary arrests.
The latest escalation in Myanmar's Rakhine State began in November 2023 with the launch of a rebel counter-offensive by the Arakan Army and two other armed groups - the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) - that has posed the greatest threat to military control since the 2021 coup.
Myanmar's military has responded by intensifying indiscriminate airstrikes that have killed, injured and displaced civilians. The impact on Rakhine state, where most of Myanmar's more than 600,000 Rohingya still live, has been severe, with towns turned into battlegrounds.
In recent months, tens of thousands of people, many of them Rohingya, have fled a major offensive by the Arakan Army to wrest control of the towns of Buthidaung and Maungdaw from the military. In one of the deadliest attacks along the Naf River border with Bangladesh on August 5, scores of civilians were reportedly killed, including by armed drones, as they tried to flee the hostilities.
Amnesty International reported that Bangladeshi authorities were pushing Rohingya fleeing the conflict back into Myanmar, while those who reached the camps in Bangladesh described a desperate lack of basic supplies and support there.
New arrivals in Bangladesh expressed concern that they have been unable to register with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to receive essential assistance. As a result, many have gone without food and are afraid to go out for fear of deportation, even if they need health care, Amnesty said.
Interviewees also mentioned the deteriorating security situation in the Rohingya refugee camps, mainly due to the presence of two Rohingya armed groups: the Rohingya Solidarity Organization and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
“The interim Bangladesh government and humanitarian relief organizations must work together so that people can have access to essential services such as food, adequate shelter and medical care,” Callamard said.
“Bangladesh must also ensure that it does not forcibly return people to escalating conflict. Meanwhile, the international community needs to step up with funds and assistance for those living in the refugee camps.”
Refoulement, or sending people back to a country where their life or freedom may be threatened, is a violation of international law. The principle of non-refoulement is a cornerstone of international law and is binding on all states. People fleeing violence and persecution must be allowed access to territory to seek asylum and be protected from refoulement.
Bangladeshi officials have denied allegations of refoulement, but said border guards "intercept" people trying to cross the border. They have also insisted that the country cannot take in any more Rohingya refugees.
In 2017, more than 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh following a campaign of mass atrocities by Myanmar's security forces in Rakhine State. They joined hundreds of thousands of other Rohingya who had previously sought refuge in the country. In Bangladesh, nearly one million Rohingya refugees remain in camps in a coastal region of the Bay of Bengal that is extremely vulnerable to cyclones, floods, landslides, fires, and the effects of climate change.
Myanmar has been engulfed in a bloody civil war that has killed thousands of civilians since 2021, when the country's military seized power in a coup. In recent months, a coalition of ethnic rebel forces, including the AA, has escalated its offensive to oust the junta.
Armed conflict continues in the northwest, northeast, southeast, and Rakhine state, forcing civilians from their homes and causing death and injury. Fierce fighting between the military and ethnic armed organizations, as well as armed opposition forces, has led to alarming rates of displacement, hunger, and protection threats.
As hostilities in Myanmar escalate, plunging millions of people into a deepening humanitarian crisis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned earlier this month that the "humanitarian situation is spiraling" and urged the country's neighbors to " leverage their influence" to achieve peace and a political solution.
In Myanmar, 18.6 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance - the fifth-largest number in the world. 6 million of them are children. Nearly 3.2 million people are displaced throughout the country, mostly due to conflict.
Hunger is also on the rise across the country. Some 13.3 million people - nearly 25 percent of the population - are estimated to be food insecure this year, with an increased risk of malnutrition, especially among children and pregnant women. The health system is in disarray and basic medicines are running out. Millions of people in Myanmar are in need of emergency health assistance this year.
As civilians continue to face the dangers of an escalating and expanding conflict, humanitarians say an estimated 1 million people - many already internally displaced - are suffering from the impact of recent devastating floods. Since September 9, torrential monsoon rains and the remnants of Typhoon Yagi have submerged 70 of the country's 330 townships.
The flooding has caused significant loss of life, with more than 360 people reported dead and many more injured in several regions. Damage was particularly severe in the northwest, southeast and Rakhine state. The floods have devastated crops, farmland and livestock, destroying the livelihoods of vulnerable communities.
Continued lack of funding is undermining relief efforts. The US$994 million Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) is currently only 32 percent funded, with $318 million received. The Rohingya Joint Response Plan (JRP) 2024 seeks $852 million to assist 1.3 million people; the JRP is just 48 percent funded, with $409 million received.
Further information
Full text: Myanmar/Bangladesh: Rohingya community facing gravest threats since 2017, Amnesty International, press release, published October 24, 2024
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/10/myanmar-bangladesh-rohingya-community-facing-gravest-threats-since-2017/