Kalem Ullah, a schoolteacher from Maungdaw town in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, fled with his family to Bangladesh in recent weeks. Now living in a relative’s shelter in the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhiya, he says life under the Arakan Army’s control had become unbearable.
Though Myanmar’s military no longer holds full control in Rakhine, with as much as 80 percent of the state reportedly under the Arakan Army’s grip, Kalem says persecution of Muslims, especially Rohingya people, has continued or worsened.
“The internal situation in Myanmar is desperate,” he told bdnews24.com.
“The Arakan Army is targeting Muslims. They want to turn Myanmar into a state only for the Rakhine people. That’s why they’re discriminating against Muslims, burning down homes, torturing men, and kidnapping women for ransom. They collect extortion money from every household in every village.”
Similar accounts were shared by Rohingya refugees like Md Ibrahim and Khadija Begum, who arrived in Bangladesh from Maungdaw’s Haripara and Noapara. Khadija, a mother of five, has now turned to mendicancy for a living in a Ukhiya camp while caring for her bedridden husband.
“The Arakan Army and the junta are the same,” she said. “They’ve created this situation to drive Rohingya people out.”
Since the Arakan Army wrested control of much of Rakhine from the junta, violence, arson, and persecution of Rohingya Muslims have reportedly continued unabated. Each day, dozens risk their lives crossing by sea to enter Bangladesh in search of safety.
The Rohingya who spoke to bdnews24.com see little difference between the junta and the Arakan Army. They say the Arakan Army suspects even semi-educated Rohingya people of supporting rival armed groups like the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) or the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), deepening the mistrust and persecution.
The resulting climate of fear has left many Rohingya people doubtful about ever returning to their homeland.
Optimism was briefly stirred during Ramadan this year when Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus and UN Secretary-General António Guterres visited Camp 20 in Ukhiya on Mar 14, breaking fast with over 100,000 Rohingya people.
Yunus urged the displaced community to prepare to return soon and prayed that they might celebrate the next Eid in their own homes in Myanmar, in the Chattogram dialect familiar to the Rohingya.
On Apr 4, the Chief Advisor’s Office in Dhaka said Myanmar had deemed 180,000 Rohingya people “eligible” for repatriation.
But by late April, with no visible progress on return, Bangladesh had received another 115,000 new Rohingya arrivals, driven by intensified violence in Rakhine. The total Rohingya population in Bangladesh now stands at 1.3 million.
The idea of a UN-mediated “humanitarian corridor” for Rakhine has also become a subject of growing political debate in the region.
According to Kalem, this year has seen the largest influx of Rohingya people into Bangladesh since the 2017 exodus. While many left Maungdaw back then, nearly 100,000 Rohingya people had remained in the area. Most survived on farming or fishing.
Maungdaw, which once hosted perhaps the largest Rohingya population in Rakhine, has seen an exodus of around 50,000 people this year alone, he said. Towns like Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung are now fully under Arakan Army control.
Kalem believes that roughly 50,000 Rohingya people still remain in Maungdaw, but most are living in fear and looking for opportunities to flee.
“The Arakan Army is using Muslims as a human shield,” he said.
“They want to avoid international condemnation, so they’re holding Muslims back to make it appear that the situation is normal in Maungdaw. But people can’t bear the torture anymore. Many are sneaking into Bangladesh.”
Exploitation of this humanitarian crisis has also given rise to a network of traffickers in the border region, facilitating illegal crossings for a fee.
Kalem, who arrived in Bangladesh with his wife and eight children, said they crossed the border by boat at night through brokers. Each person had to pay around 600,000 Myanmar kyat, roughly 35,000 Bangladeshi taka.
RESTRICTED MOVEMENT AND TAX BURDEN
In Maungdaw, the Rohingya living in certain neighbourhoods are subjected to strict mobility controls.
Kalem said they have to pay a tax to the Arakan Army on any income they have.
He said, “Even after paying taxes to the Arakan Army, they would still burn down Muslim homes and loot their belongings. Yet they didn’t collect any tax from the Rakhine people. Moreover, if young Rohingya boys went fishing, the Arakan Army would capture, sometimes even kill them.”
Before Kalem fled to Bangladesh, the Arakan Army reportedly killed three people and kidnapped four others.
He mentioned that the Arakan Army has an aid organisation that provides food assistance to Myanmar’s Rakhine community. However, Muslims receive no such help.
“On the contrary,” he said, “the Arakan Army steals chickens and ducks from Muslim homes and loots their money and property. People in Maungdaw are living in unbearable conditions and surviving on seasonal fruits and edibles.”
He added, “They don’t allow people to travel. You have to stay within your own area and sell fish or crabs to Rakhine brokers at very low prices. Those brokers buy items worth Tk 100 for just Tk 20. The Rohingyas are barely managing their households.”
The issue of looting also came up in the testimony of Khadija from Maungdaw’s Noapara. Speaking in her native tongue, she said: “The Arakan Army members came and shot my chickens dead. When I asked, ‘Why are you killing them?’ They said, ‘They’ll kill us too and need our land. We must leave!’”
After that, Khadija no longer felt safe staying in her home.
‘ARAKAN ARMY CATCHES THOSE TRAINED BY JUNTA’
While residing in her Myanmar home, Khadija heard that many young Rohingya men were being taken by the Myanmar military and used for “war efforts”.
The issue of the Myanmar army using Rohingya in battle against the Arakan Army was also covered by several international media outlets at the time.
Recalling those days, she said: “The junta took some Rohingya youths after a search. They were later given training and even weapons.
“But when the junta troops fled, the Arakan Army began hunting for those Rohingya. They managed to capture some. In some cases, when they couldn’t find the men, they took their parents instead.”
Ibrahim from Haripara said, “Whether it was the Arakan Army or the junta, we were never safe.”
However, Kalem said the Rohingya Muslims of Maungdaw did not have any issues with the ARSA or RSO. He believes that also became a curse for the Rohingya since ARSA and RSO do not have good relations with the Arakan Army.
“The Arakan Army persecutes educated Rohingyas in Maungdaw the most. They believe that the religious scholars and teachers are working for ARSA. But the ARSA and RSO members live in the hills, up to 48km away from Maungdaw. They only come to Maungdaw once every 10 to 15 days,” he said.
Almost all refugees who fled from Maungdaw claimed that although there is some farming there, rice and other food items were mostly brought in from Bangladesh through illegal channels.
They mentioned that the price of a 50-kg bag of rice is between 70,000 and 80,000 Myanmar kyat in Maungdaw, which is roughly Tk 4,500 in Bangladeshi currency.
In such a situation, there is no possibility of returning to Rakhine as long as the Arakan Army remains in control.
Kalem believes return would only be possible once a safe environment is ensured.
‘PEACE’, THE CASUALTY OF WAR
When Ibrahim left his country, he had no idea that he might never return to his homeland.
About a year ago, he had come to Bangladesh primarily for his mother’s medical treatment.
He was staying at a relative’s house and preparing to return to Rakhine once everything was in order, when suddenly the war between the Myanmar army and the Arakan Army broke out.
His family and relatives back in Rakhine warned him not to return, saying it would be like walking into death.
Since then, he has been living in a Rohingya camp in Ukhiya.
Speaking to bdnews24.com, he said that after the 2017 genocide, those who remained in Rakhine were confused about what to do.
In the meantime, a social and emotional distance had developed between the Rohingya Muslims and the Rakhine Buddhists. Mistrust between the two communities had grown severe.
HOW MANY HAVE ACTUALLY ARRIVED?
The locals are uncertain about the actual number of Rohingya currently in Bangladesh and how many more are joining each year.
Exact figures are unavailable as both the government and international agencies rely on estimates.
For example, the government officially claims that there are 1.3 million Rohingya in the country. But many locals believe the number hasn’t changed significantly over the past eight years.
To find out how many Rohingya have come from Rakhine state to Bangladesh in the past year, bdnews24.com emailed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
In its reply, the agency said: “So far in the past year, around 119,000 newly arrived Rohingya have been biometrically registered. However, many are still undergoing the registration process, so this number may increase.
“Of these, about 25,000 Rohingya were biometrically identified in April and May.”
Meanwhile, in an updated report, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that around 150,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh over the past few months, and another 50,000 may arrive by the end of the year.
As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the authorities to provide basic services.
The UN agency noted that the housing crisis in the camps has worsened significantly, and most newly arrived Rohingya are staying with relatives.
Mohammad Jasim, the majhi (community leader) of Camp 26 in Ukhiya, said that nearly 16,000 new Rohingya have arrived in his camp. All of them have already received food assistance tokens.
He said, “There’s now a massive housing crisis. Many are crammed in with relatives. Some are clearing trees and cutting into hills in Teknaf to make space for shelter.”
Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mizanur Rahman said, “For the newly arrived, we are initially arranging shelter in abandoned community centres and empty spaces within the camps.”
