ARSA leader arrest: Tensions spark in Rohingya camps, explosions heard along border

daily observer
Observer Online Report
Published : Wednesday, 19 March, 2025 Count : 562

The arrest of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) leader has reportedly sparked tensions in Rohingya camps and along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.

Following the news of Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi's arrest, loud explosions were heard across the border in Maungdaw, Myanmar, causing panic among residents.

 

Gunfire from Myanmar echoes once again in Saint Martin's

DhakaTribune
Tribune Desk
Publish : 18 Dec 2024,

Residents reported intermittent gunfire from Wednesday morning until 1pm, with sporadic sounds continuing afterward

Photo: Collected

After the capture of Myanmar's Maungdaw city in Rakhine by the rebel group Arakan Army (AA), loud explosions were once again heard from the border areas, including Shapuree Dwip and Saint Martin's Island in Teknaf upazila, Cox's Bazar.

Residents reported intermittent gunfire from Wednesday morning until 1pm, with sporadic sounds continuing afterward.

Bangladesh: End Rohingya Refugee Pushbacks

SCOOP World
Sunday, 24 November 2024,
Press Release: Fortify Rights 

(COX’S BAZAR, November 19, 2024)–The Interim Government of Bangladesh should immediately stop the forced return of Rohingya fleeing deadly violence and ongoing genocide in Rakhine State, Myanmar, Fortify Rights said today. A new investigation by Fortify Rights documents how the Bangladesh border guard forces continue to push Rohingya back to Myanmar.

“Bangladesh’s interim government has promised to turn a new page for the country and respect human rights after a decade of brutal abuses under Sheikh Hasina’s government,” said Zaw Win, Human Rights Specialist at Fortify Rights. “The interim government’s commitment to human rights should include protecting the rights of Rohingya who are fleeing genocidal violence in Myanmar. Bangladesh should allow Rohingya to cross safely into Bangladesh and formally recognize their rights as refugees.”

Rohingya Muslims risk losing homeland in Myanmar: Rights activist

TRT World
7 September 2024

Buddhist ethnic insurgent group Arakan Army’s efforts to control region led to continued displacement, mass killings, atrocities, human rights violations, co-founder of Free Rohingya Coalition laments.

AP,Lwin emphasised that Bangladesh, where Rohingya refugees have sought asylum due to attacks by the Myanmar Army, must persuade the international community to lead the repatriation process. / Photo: AP

Rohingya Muslims face the risk of losing their homeland if the international community fails to address the issue, according to one observer.

Uncertainty, despair grip Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

UCA News
Updated: August 30, 2024 

Most of the estimated 1 million Rohingya refugees are frustrated with no visible sign of repatriation and poor camp life 

This photo taken on May 24 shows Rohingya refugees walking down a path at a refugee camp in Ukhia in Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district. (Photo: AFP)

Sitting in his tiny one-room home in the congested Shalbagan refugee camp in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar on a hot and humid monsoon day, Abu Sufian laments the loss of a relatively happy life in Myanmar's Rakhine state seven years ago.

'My family died in front of my eyes’: Harrowing tales from a Myanmar massacre

BBC
Yogita Limaye
South Asia & Afghanistan correspondent
Reporting from
Bangladesh-Myanmar border
20 August 2024

 Nisar lost his family in the attack on the banks of this river

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find distressing.

Fayaz and his wife believed they were moments from safety when the bombs began to fall: “We were getting on the boat one after another - that’s when they started bombing us.”

Wails and shouts filled the air around 17:00 local time on 5 August, Fayaz* says, as thousands of scared Rohingyas made their way to the banks of the Naf river in the town of Maungdaw.

Ethnic armed group suspected of deadly attack in Myanmar on Rohingya trying to flee fighting

AP
By GRANT PECK
August 10, 2024

BANGKOK (AP) — At least 150 civilians from Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority may have been killed this week in an artillery and drone attack in the western state of Rakhine that survivors suspect was carried out by a major force in the resistance to military rule.

Rohingya ‘genocide intensifying’ as war rages in Myanmar’s Rakhine: BROUK

Al Jazeera
By Al Jazeera Staff
Published On 26 Jun 2024

Warning from rights group comes as fighting between Myanmar’s military and Arakan Army traps Rohingya in the western state.

People can be seen on the Myanmar side of the border, during the continuing conflict in Rakhine State, in the Teknaf area of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on June 24, 2024 [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/ Reuters]

 

 A United Kingdom-based rights group has called for global action over what it called an “intensifying genocide” against Myanmar’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority as fighting between the Southeast Asian country’s military and a powerful ethnic armed group escalated in the western Rakhine State.

UN World Food Program decries looting and burning of its warehouse in western Myanmar combat zone

The Washinton Post
By Associated Press
June 25, 2024 

The United Nations’ food agency has strongly condemned the looting of food supplies and burning of one of its warehouses in a war-torn area in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine

BANGKOK — The United Nations’ food agency on Tuesday strongly condemned the looting of food supplies and burning of one of its warehouses over the weekend in a war-torn area in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine.

A statement released by the World Food Program said the destroyed building in Rakhine’s Maungdaw township held 1,175 metric tons (1,295 U.S. tons) of food and supplies — enough to sustain 64,000 people for a month in case of an emergency.

Fresh attacks against Rohingya in Myanmar, UN decries beheadings, violence

ABC News
By Libby Hogan and wires
Posted Mon 17 Jun 2024

                        The UN has denounced signs of new attacks on Rohingya civilians.(Reuters: Jorge Silva)

• In short: A powerful ethnic armed group has asked residents to leave a town ahead of their planned offensive in Myanmar.
• The Rohingya primarily inhabit Maungdaw town.
• What next? The Rohingya say they have nowhere to flee to and fear their homes will be burned down.

Thousands of Rohingya feared trapped in fighting in western Myanmar

REUTERS
June 17, 2024 

June 17 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Muslim minority Rohingya are feared to be caught in fighting in western Myanmar, as a powerful armed ethnic group bears down on junta positions in a coastal town on the border with Bangladesh, which is reluctant to accept them.

Myanmar Armed Group Calls for Evacuation as It Approaches Border Town

THE I DIPLOMAT
Sebastian Strangio
June 17, 2024

The Arakan Army has called for the mostly Rohingya residents of Maungdaw to leave, a month after it was accused of mass arson attacks in a neighboring township. 

A powerful ethnic armed group in Myanmar’s west says that it is on the verge of capturing Maungdaw, a mainly Rohingya town close to the country’s border with Bangladesh, and has called on its residents to evacuate as a matter of urgency.

Fighting in Rakhine state townships displaces 40,000 Rohingyas

NewsGram
NewsGram Desk
13 May 2024, 

At least 40,000 ethnic Rohingyas have been forced to flee intense clashes between junta troops and the rebel Arakan Army in two townships in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state since the start of the week, and are now facing a humanitarian crisis, the displaced told RFA Burmese on Thursday.

Fighting in Rakhine state:- At least 40,000 ethnic Rohingyas have been forced to flee intense clashes between junta troops and the rebel Arakan Army. [RFA]

 

Fighting in Rakhine state:- At least 40,000 ethnic Rohingyas have been forced to flee intense clashes between junta troops and the rebel Arakan Army in two townships in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state since the start of the week, and are now facing a humanitarian crisis, the displaced told RFA Burmese on Thursday.

As It Loses Control of Rakhine, Myanmar Junta Resorts to Stoking Religious Hatred

The Irrawaddy
by Nayt Thit
May 14, 2024

Myanmar junta soldiers are seen on Armed Forces Day in 2021.

After suffering humiliating defeats and territorial losses to the ethnic Arakan Army (AA)’s ongoing offensive in Rakhine State, the Myanmar junta is again utilizing its old tactic of fueling racial and religious tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim residents in some townships in the north of the state, according to military analysts and the ethnic rebel army.

AA captures 6th border guard police battalion in Inn Din of southern Maungdaw

Narinjara
Naung Min Thu,
6 May 2024

The 6th border guard police battalion in Inn Din of southern Maungdaw township is now completely occupied by the Arakha Army (AA) fighters on Sunday morning after thousands of junta soldiers deserted the base, said local residents.

Battle intensifies between rebels and military in Myanmar’s Buthidaung town

NORTHEAST NOW
NE NOW NEWS
May 2, 2024

Representative Image

Guwahati: Many people from the Hindu and Rakhine communities are trapped in Myanmar’s Buthidaung town in Rakhine state as there is a clash that is happening between the military and the rebel group, the Arakan Army.

Junta Ramps Up Deployment of Muslim Proxy Attacks on AA

BNI
Monday, April 29, 2024

Rohingya militiamen, trained, armed and deployed by the Junta, have escalated attacks on the Arakha Army (AA) in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships of Rakhine State, AA announced against the backdrop of the Junta’s ever- more desperate fight to maintain their few remaining townships still under their control.

Myanmar: If the hospitals are closed, where do people go?

MSF
15 Apr 2024

Myanmar is facing an acute humanitarian crisis since fighting escalated at the end of October 2023. The intensification of conflict has led to a lack of humanitarian access, a decimation of the healthcare system, and—due to a law passed in February—increasing fear of military conscription or forced recruitment into other armed groups.

AA captures Yan Aung Pyin outpost in Maungdaw

Narinjara
Date: 24 February 2024 

The Arakan Army (AA) has captured Yan Aung Pyin outpost in Maungdaw township of Rakhine State after a 5-hour long battle, said a statement.

Arakan Army gains ground in Rakhine conflict, seizes control of Paletwa and other towns

BORDER LENS
The Borderlens Desk
February 20, 2024 

Reports emerging from Myanmar on Thursday have indicated that an ethnic army in the country has launched an attack on yet another major city in the west, with the state’s capital not far behind. The Arakan Army (AA), a rebel group, has intensified its fighting against Myanmar’s army in the strategically significant city of Sittwe in Rakhine province. This area holds particular importance due to India’s construction of a port for connectivity to its northeastern states via the Bay of Bengal.