High-Level Conference Highlights Significant Challenges Facing Resolution of Rohingya Refugee Crisis

THE | DIPLOMAT
By Sebastian Strangio
October 02, 2025

 A safe and voluntary repatriation of refugees to Rakhine State remains unlikely for the foreseeable future. Is it time for a new approach?

Rohingya rights advocate Wai Wai Nu addresses the High-Level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 30, 2025. Credit: X/Wai Wai Nu

On Tuesday, top U.N. and government officials warned of the critical situation facing Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, due to funding shortfalls and the unstable political conditions inside Myanmar.

The High-Level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar was convened at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to mobilize global support for Rohingya refugees and formulate a coordinated plan for the resolution of their return to Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

UN Member States urged to pursue accountability for Rohingya genocide

Dhaka Tribune
UNB
Publish : 27 Aug 2025,

UNGA participants expected to discuss responses to ongoing abuses.

Rohingya refugees hold placards and flags to demand safe return to Myanmar as they mark the eighth anniversary of their mass exodus at their refugee camp at Kutupalong in Coxs Bazar district, Bangladesh on Aug 25, 2025. Photo: UNB

Fortify Rights and 57 other groups in a joint statement on Wednesday said United Nations member states must pursue accountability for genocide and other atrocities committed against ethnic Rohingya civilians in Rakhine State, Myanmar.

Unholy Alliance: Myanmar Military Junta and Arakan Army vs Rohingya

Workers' Liberty
by martin on
Author: Hein Htet Kyaw
12 December, 2024 

Pic: displaced Rohingya in 2017, from Wikimedia Commons

The Rohingya are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group from the state of Arakan (Rakhine). A British scholar named Francis Buchanan-Hamilton said in his 1799 article "Burma Empire" that "the Mohammedans, who have long dwelt in Arakan," refer to themselves as "Rooinga, or natives of Arakan". "Inhabitant of Rohang" was the early Muslim name for Arakan.

Escaping inferno: Rohingya flee as violence escalates in Rakhine

BIG NEWS NETWORK
Khalid Umar Malik
16th June 2024, 

RAKHINE, Myanmar - Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) has risen in the western province of Rakhine in recent days, putting thousands of predominantly Muslim Rohingya residents at risk.

According to discussions with Rohingya activists who spoke with witnesses in Buthidaung, there have been large fires throughout the town in recent days.

Myanmar Mechanism calls on Myanmar military to respond to its requests for information

Myanmar Mechanism calls on Myanmar military to respond to its requests for information

Statement by Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar

Geneva, 27 May 2024 – The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar has made numerous requests to the Myanmar military for information related to the many serious crimes that we are investigating. These include crimes allegedly committed by the Myanmar security forces and by armed groups. To date, the military has not responded to any of these requests. Today the Mechanism has sent a new request and is issuing this statement in the hope that it will lead to a response.

‘Nowhere to go’: Rohingya face arson attacks in Myanmar’s Rakhine State

Aljazeera
By Caleb Quinley
Published On 21 May 2024

Rohingya, targeted by the Myanmar military in 2017, are caught in the middle as the Arakan Army and military battle in the western state.

Smoke billows from a group of houses set on fire over the weekend [Courtesy of Planet Labs PBC]

 

Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) has escalated in the western state of Rakhine in recent days, putting thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya who live in the area at increased risk.

Myanmar Junta Using Rohingya Recruits to Sow Ethnic Hatred: Activists

The Irrawaddy
Brian Wei
April 19, 2024

                                The burned Doctors Without Borders office. 

Myanmar’s junta is accused of burning down Buthidaung town in Rakhine State using forced Rohingya recruits in an apparent attempt to boost ethnic hatred.

Shrinking aid for Rohingyas is a serious concern

daily observer
S A Korobi
Published : Monday, 1 April, 2024 

Since 2017, the United Nations has been seeking humanitarian assistance for the Rohingya under the name of Joint Response Plan (JRP).The Rohingyas, who had taken refuge in Bangladesh to save their lives from a genocidal attempt by the Myanmar military, are still living in congested camps and restricted livelihoodswith no hope of change any soon. To add salt to the wound, the funding for them, the worlds most persecuted community, has been declining as every year passes.

Myanmar Junta ‘Orchestrating Rohingya Protests’ Against Arakan Army in Rakhine

The Irrawaddy
by Hein Htoo Zan
March 22, 2024

Rohingya stage a protest against the Arakan Army in Buthidaung, Rakhine State on Tuesday. / Han Nyein Oo

 

Myanmar’s military regime is orchestrating Rohingya protests against the Arakan Army to sow ethnic division in Rakhine State, according to a Rohingya activist, an ethnic Rakhine politician, and community leaders.

Video Shows Rohingya Forcibly Recruited Into Myanmar Military

VOA
Ingyin Naing

March 14, 2024

 Dozens of young Rohingya men ride a military truck on March 9, 2024. (UGC courtesy video) 

washington — 

VOA has recently obtained video footage depicting Rohingya from Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps being trained as soldiers in Rakhine state, the scene of heavy fighting between Myanmar’s military junta and ethnic armed groups.

The Rohingya in the shadow of the Arakan army

Dhaka Tribune
Shafiur Rahman
Publish : 02 Mar 2024, 

“Instead of getting killed at the frontline by taking up arms for the junta, we would rather fight them and join the Arakan Army (AA).”

Rohingyas being forcibly recruited by Myanmar military: report

The Daily Star
Agencies
Mon Feb 26, 2024 

Rohingyas offered citizenship cards, $41 monthly salary if they join the military

 

Photo: Collected

Myanmar's military is forcibly recruiting Rohingya men from villages and camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Rakhine State and it is feared that they will be used as human shields, said a report.

Bangladesh refuses proposal to accept new Rohingyas

prothomalo
Raheed Ejaz, Dhaka
Updated: 18 Feb 2024

A boat enters Shahpari Island Jetty Ghat in Teknaf yesterday. Locals said, there were five Rohingyas, one of them was shotCollected

300 Myanmar junta troops who fled attack return from Bangladesh

RFA
By RFA Burmese
2024.02.16

The troops had been stationed at a border post that the rebel Arakan Army captured earlier this month.

Myanmar citizens and Border Guard Police who crossed the Bangladesh-Myanmar border to seek shelter in Bangladesh are escorted back into Myanmar after arriving by ship at Cox’s Bazar on Feb. 15, 2024. (AFP

Some 300 members of a junta military unit and a border police force who fled to Bangladesh during an attack by the rebel Arakan Army have been repatriated to Myanmar, according to several Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

China says it facilitated Myanmar military's talks with rebel groups

Financial Express
Reuters
Dec 14, 2023 

China facilitated Myanmar's ruling military's peace talks with rebel groups, and the parties reached an agreement on a temporary ceasefire and the maintenance of dialogue, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Myanmar: The last days of the junta?

theinterpreter
Rahman Yaacob
Published 4 Dec 2023 

The latest phase of military conflict in Myanmar pitting rebel forces against the Myanmar military, better known as the Tatmadaw, may herald a new political and security landscape in the war-torn Southeast Asian country.

Since October, three ethnic armed organisations under the banner of the Three Brotherhood Alliance have launched a coordinated offensive against the ruling military junta. Codenamed Operation 1027, the campaign has included the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Arakan Army, targeting Tatmadaw’s controlled areas and military outposts.

Myanmar Junta Continues to Suffer Defeats a Month Into Operation 1027

The Irrawaddy
November 27, 2023

Arakan Army forces take part in a military drill.

Monday marks one month since the Myanmar military regime was confronted with what has rapidly become the biggest challenge to its rule since the 2021 coup—a massive, coordinated resistance offensive dubbed Operation 1027 that has inflicted significant troop and territorial losses on the junta.

Myanmar Military ‘Kidnapping Civilians for Ransom in Rakhine’

The Irrawaddy
November 24, 2023

Taungup Police Station 

Eleven businessmen are being held for ransom in Taungup Township, Rakhine State after the military seized them on Nov. 14 over alleged ties to the Arakan Army (AA), say family members of the men.

The businessmen were arrested by junta troops after the AA attacked border guard police outposts in Donepike and Cheinkalein villages in Rathedaung Township on Nov. 13.

Parents Pull Children From Schools in Yangon as Myanmar Junta Troops Move In

The Irrawaddy
November 24, 2023

Junta soldiers guard a school on June 1, 2023.

Parents have stopped sending their children to public schools in several townships of Yangon after the regime started stationing troops at schools again last week.

Junta troops have been stationed at three highs schools in Thingangyun Township, one in South Dagon Township, one in Hlaing Tharyar Township, another in South Okkalapa Township, and at a few schools in North Okkalapa Township, residents of the townships say.

Who’s Who in Myanmar’s NCA, Then and Now

The Irrawaddy
October 13, 2023

(Top row from left to right) Representatives of three NCA non-signatories and two NCA signatories that joined the junta-organized peace talks. (Bottom row left to right) Representatives of five NCA signatories that joined the talks.

Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing is planning to celebrate the eighth anniversary of the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in Naypyitaw on Sunday, even though some of the signatories have been fighting the Myanmar military since the 2021 coup, saying the accord is no longer valid.