Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
· collected 2026-08-25 · by Tun Khin
The article reports on the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya people by both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine state, with a focus on the consequences of international failure to hold perpetrators accountable. The key numbers mentioned are over 1.2 million Rohingya still trapped in camps in Bangladesh and more than 150,000 who have fled to Bangladesh since 2023. The article argues that the AA is continuing the same policies of ethnic cleansing started by the Myanmar military in 2017, including mass killings, forced recruitment, and sexual violence, driven by anti-Rohingya racism. This situation has left Rohingya with no safe place to return to, as their land is being confiscated and new settlements are built on it.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-25,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
It marks the anniversary of the 2017 genocidal campaign by the Myanmar military.
asserted
It → mark → military
Babies and young children were thrown into fires.
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Babies → throw → fires
Women and young girls were systematically gang-raped and mutilated.
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Women → rap → ?
Entire families were slaughtered as they fled.
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they → slaughter → ?
Others were trapped inside their homes and burned alive.
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Others → trap → homes
More than 700,000 of our people were forced to flee to Bangladesh.
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700,000 → force → Bangladesh
The Rohingya, who are an ethnic Muslim-majority group who speak their own language from the Indo-Aryan family, have long faced discrimination and persecution in Myanmar.
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who → speak → Myanmar
Today, about 1.2 million Rohingya remain trapped in camps in Bangladesh, while a new wave of persecution is forcing more Rohingya from their homes in Rakhine state.
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wave → remain → state
Others are risking their lives at sea in a desperate search for safety.
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Others → risk → safety
Still, the international community is falling short in fulfilling its commitments to ensure accountability and protect the Rohingya.
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community → fall → Rohingya
The genocide never stopped
Over the past two years, the balance of power in Rakhine has dramatically changed.
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balance → stop → Rakhine
The Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine armed group, now controls most of the state, including the main Rohingya areas in the north.
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Army → control → north
But the brutality and persecution Rohingya face have not ended.
asserted
Rohingya → face → ?
As the AA has consolidated its control, evidence has mounted of mass killings and targeted attacks on civilians, documenting what Rohingya communities have been warning of.
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communities → consolidate → what
Rohingya also face forced recruitment, forced labour, detention and severe restrictions on movement.
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Rohingya → face → movement
Sexual violence, a hallmark of the Rohingya genocide, is continuing under AA authority.
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violence → continue → authority
Rohingya in Rakhine report that the violence and oppression they now face from the AA is just as brutal as the Myanmar military’s ethnic cleansing in 2017.
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they → face → 2017
Taken together, we see these abuses as part of a deliberate strategy to drive Rohingya from their homes and continue their erasure from Myanmar.
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we → take → Myanmar
The same anti-Rohingya racism that drove decades of persecution by the Myanmar military is also at the heart of the AA’s treatment of the Rohingya.
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that → drive → Rohingya
The perpetrators may have changed, but the dehumanisation and denial of our identity and rights continue.
uncertain
dehumanisation → change → identity
The AA is completing what the Myanmar military started.
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military → complete → what
Rohingya are being driven from their villages and prevented from returning, while their land is confiscated and new Rakhine settlements are built on it, sometimes by Rohingya coerced into forced labour.
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settlements → drive → labour
The possibility of return is being destroyed in real time.
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possibility → destroy → time
Nowhere safe to go
More than 150,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late 2023, just as international humanitarian funding for refugees is being slashed.
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funding → go → refugees
Learning centres in Cox’s Bazar have closed and essential services are being cut.
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services → close → Bazar
Children who fled genocide are growing up without education or hope for their future.
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who → flee → future
Others were born in the camps and have never known a life outside them.
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Others → bear → them
The international community is allowing an entire generation of Rohingya children to be abandoned.
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generation → allow → children
Rohingya are being forced to choose between continuing persecution in their homeland and hunger, insecurity and an increasingly desperate existence in camps.
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Rohingya → force → camps
The very people forcing Rohingya to flee are often involved in and profiting from their trafficking as they try to escape.
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they → force → trafficking
In July, two boats carrying more than 500 Rohingya, including children and young people, sank after leaving Rakhine.
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boats → carry → Rakhine
No one would put their children on such a dangerous journey unless staying was even more dangerous.
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staying → put → journey
Meanwhile, there is growing anti-Rohingya sentiment in countries that host them as refugees.
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that → be → refugees
Governments talk about Rohingya returning home while more are being forced out and the land they would return to is being taken.
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they → talk → ?
We want to go home.
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We → want → ?
But we want to go home with our rights: citizenship, equal rights and the right to return to our own land.
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we → want → land
Nine years of impunity
For nine years, the Myanmar military leaders responsible for genocide against Rohingya have faced no real consequences.
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leaders → face → consequences
The architects of the genocide remain free, while the same military has gone on to commit atrocities against communities across Myanmar.
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military → remain → Myanmar
It is about stopping the violence happening now and preventing further atrocities.
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It → stop → atrocities
The world cannot repeat the same failure with the Arakan Army.
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world → repeat → Army
…and 27 more, not listed.
