The Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, has imposed severe restrictions and committed grave abuses against the ethnic Rohingya population, Human Rights Watch said today.
he Arakan Army’s territorial gains in the state have been accompanied by movement restrictions, pillage, arbitrary detention, mistreatment, and unlawful forced labour and recruitment, among other abuses against the Rohingya, the New York-based rights organisation alleged in its report published yesterday.
Myanmar’s military has long subjected the Rohingya to atrocity crimes, including the ongoing crime against humanity of apartheid, it added.
“The Arakan Army is carrying out policies of oppression against the Rohingya similar to the those long imposed by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Arakan Army should end its discriminatory and abusive practices and comply with international law.”
From April to July 2025, Human Rights Watch interviewed 12 Rohingya refugees who had fled to Bangladesh from Buthidaung township in northern Rakhine State.
