5 October :The Arakan Army has been accused of persecuting Rohingya people, seizing their ancestral lands and forcibly clearing their villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. An investigation by British newspaper The Guardian has found that since taking control of northern Rakhine in 2024, the armed group has allegedly destroyed successive Rohingya villages and built military installations, detention camps and new settlements on the land.
The findings are based on satellite imagery, United Nations research and testimonies from displaced Rohingya people. The investigation examined, among other locations, a rice field in the Hnget Thay area of Buthidaung Township, near the Bangladesh border. Until 2024, the land was cultivated by Rohingya farmers. By 2026, satellite images showed 120 grey buildings at the site, which the investigation identified as part of a detention camp operated by the Arakan Army.
Displaced Rohingya families from surrounding areas have reportedly been held at the camp. They are not allowed to enter or leave without permission. The report claims that the Arakan Army has established at least 10 such camps since taking control of large areas of northern Rakhine.
Muhammad Ares, an 18-year-old Rohingya now living in Bangladesh, said intense fighting erupted after the Arakan Army entered the area, killing many civilians. He said their village was later burned and destroyed, while displaced residents were forcibly taken to camps. According to him, their homeland has been transformed into a network of forced-labour camps and military bases.
Rohingya residents of Wet Nyo Taung, along the Mayu River, have described similar experiences. When the area was burned in April 2024, many farmers and boatmen lost their homes, farmland and fruit orchards. Mohammad Sadiq, 26, said large trees and fruit orchards were cleared and new houses were built on their land.
Survivors allege that they were forced to dismantle their own homes and use the construction materials to build structures for the insurgents. A military barracks known as the “AP Battalion” has also reportedly been built in Wet Nyo Taung. There are allegations that young Rohingya were forcibly recruited there.
Citing an internal UN report, The Guardian said at least 800 hectares of land belonging to 23 Rohingya villages have been seized since 2024 for camps, settlements for members of other communities or military infrastructure. During the same period, UN researchers documented at least 29 incidents involving the seizure of Rohingya land or their forced displacement.
More than 155,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since 2024. Following the military crackdown in 2017, around 600,000 Rohingya were estimated to have remained in Myanmar; roughly a quarter of them have left the country during this period. Bangladesh now hosts around 1.2 million Rohingya refugees in camps.
A UN expert on Myanmar said the situation in northern Rakhine has reached a point where the Rohingya presence could effectively be eliminated. He expressed concern that although Rohingya people might remain in places resembling detention camps, they may not be allowed to return to their own homes.
According to testimonies collected by The Guardian and UN information, the Arakan Army has been accused of torture, sexual violence, arbitrary arrests, forced labour, forced military recruitment and extortion. A 32-year-old man said he was forcibly recruited into the armed group, detained for a month and repeatedly beaten. Another man alleged that Arakan Army members abducted his 22-year-old daughter, subjected her to physical and sexual abuse and forced her to undergo military training.
Many Rohingya held at the Hnget Thay detention camp are reportedly survivors of the killings in Hoiya Siri on 2 May 2024. Human Rights Watch has documented information on more than 170 villagers who were killed or remain missing in the incident, including around 90 children.
The Arakan Army has denied allegations of war crimes, saying it targeted only members of Myanmar’s military and Rohingya armed groups.
Nicholas Koumjian, head of the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), said those who planned attacks against the Rohingya sought to “create facts on the ground”. However, he said the IIMM has not yet obtained conclusive evidence attributing the destruction of Rohingya land specifically to the Arakan Army.
International law experts say forcibly separating Rohingya people from their areas of origin and subjecting them to systematic persecution could amount to the war crime of “population transfer”. Meanwhile, hearings in the genocide case concerning the Rohingya are continuing at the International Court of Justice. The court is expected to rule this month on whether the Rohingya were subjected to genocide in 2017.
Source: The Guardian