Violent clashes have been ongoing in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine State since October 2016. Insurgent attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) have led to sectarian violence perpetrated by Myanmar's military and the local Buddhist population against predominantly Muslim Rohingya civilians. The conflict has sparked international outcry and was described as an ethnic cleansing by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In August 2017, the situation worsened and hundreds of thousands of refugees fled Myanmar into Bangladesh, with an estimated 500,000 refugees having arrived by 27 September 2017. In January 2019, Arakan Army insurgents raided border police posts in Buthidaung Township, joining the conflict and beginning their military campaign in northern Rakhine State against the Burmese military.
The current conflict began on 9 October 2016 when ARSA insurgents attacked Burmese border posts along the Bangladesh–Myanmar border. In response, Burmese authorities launched "clearance operations" between October 2016 and June 2017, which killed more than 1,000 Rohingya civilians, according to UN officials.Taylor, Adam, ANALYSIS: "How Burma's Rohingya crisis went from bad to worse," , 6 September 2017 Washington Post, retrieved 14 September 2017. Following attacks on military outposts by ARSA on 25 August 2017, sectarian violence erupted once again in northern Rakhine State. The Burmese military later claimed that 400 insurgents had died in the clashes that followed. However, the UN estimates that at least 1,000 people were killed between 25 August and 8 September.Sanchez, Ray; Ben Westcott; and Jamie Tarabay; "UN chief calls Myanmar's Rohingya crisis 'catastrophic' as Security Council condemns violence," 13 September 2017, CNN. Retrieved 14 September 2017. By September, the violence had resulted in 389,000 Rohingyas fleeing their homes."The Latest: UN says 389,000 Rohingyas have fled in 3 weeks," 13 September 2017, Associated Press. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
A report published on 27 June 2018 by Amnesty International detailed crimes against humanity perpetrated by Burmese military units both before and after 25 August 2017 ARSA attacks.
By February 2025, the ongoing Rakhine offensive launched by Arakan Army gained control of over 90% of Rakhine State, including 14 of its 17 townships.
Background After Myanmar gained independence in 1948, Rakhine and Rohingya nationalists both struggled to secure autonomy, as successive central governments continued to suppress their demands. In 2011 Myanmar's political reforms, allowed for greater ethnic expression, but these changes did not translate into real political power for the people. In the 2015 elections, the Arakan National Party (ANP) won a majority of seats in Rakhine State, yet the central government bypassed them and appointed a chief minister from the ruling party. This move reinforced the belief among many Rakhine that electoral politics could not secure their rights, pushing some toward armed struggle.
Amid these frustrations, the Arakan Army (AA), an armed group advocating for greater autonomy, gained popularity among the region. Founded in 2009, the AA positioned itself as the defender of Rakhine interests, leading to frequent clashes with the Burmese military, especially from 2015 onward. The military responded with brutal crackdowns, including human rights violations, which fueled further resentment and resistance among the Rakhine population.
In response to persistent oppression, Rohingya insurgent groups have formed over the years. Notably, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) emerged, claiming to defend Rohingya rights. ARSA's attacks on Myanmar security forces in 2016 and 2017 prompted brutal military crackdowns, resulting in mass atrocities against Rohingya civilians and the displacement of hundreds of thousands to neighboring Bangladesh. Other notable Rohingya insurgent groups include Arakan Rohingya Army, Rohingya Solidarity Organisation, and Rohingya Islami Mahaz.
In modern times, the persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar dates back to the 1970s. Since then, Rohingya people have regularly been made the target of persecution by the government and nationalist Buddhists. The tension between various religious groups in the country had often been exploited by the past military governments of Myanmar. According to Amnesty International, the Rohingya have suffered from human rights violations under past military dictatorships since 1978, and many have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result. In 2005, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had assisted with the repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh, but allegations of human rights abuses in the refugee camps threatened this effort. In 2015, 140,000 Rohingyas remained in IDP camps after communal riots in 2012.
Rohingya insurgency
2016–2017 clashes
2016 On 9 October, hundreds of unidentified insurgents attacked three Burmese border posts along Myanmar's border with Bangladesh. According to government officials in the majority Rohingya border town of Maungdaw, the attackers brandished knives, machetes and homemade slingshots that fired metal bolts. Nine border officers were killed in the attack, and 48 guns, 6,624 bullets, 47 bayonets and 164 bullet cartridges were looted by the insurgents. Four Burmese soldiers were also killed two days later. Government officials in Rakhine State initially blamed the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), an Islamist insurgent group which was mainly active in the 1980s and 1990s, for the attacks, but a group calling itself Harakah al-Yaqin ("Faith Movement") later claimed responsibility.
Following the attacks in October, the Myanmar Army began "clearance operations"—widely seen as a military crackdown on the Rohingya—in the villages of northern Rakhine State. In the initial operation, dozens of people were killed and many were arrested. The military enforced a curfew and blocked food aid from the World Food Programme to 80,000 people in Rakhine State. As the crackdown continued, the casualties increased. Arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial killings, gang rapes and looting were reportedly carried out by the military. Hundreds of Rohingya people had been killed by December 2016, and many had fled Myanmar as refugees to take shelter in the nearby areas of Bangladesh.
The chief of police in Rakhine State, Colonel Sein Lwin, announced on 2 November that his force had begun recruiting non-Rohingya locals for a new branch of "regional police", which would be trained in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, and then sent back to their villages. The stated purpose of these forces was to defend villages against Rohingya insurgents; however, human rights organisations criticised the move, saying the new branch would likely to be used to further the persecution of Rohingya civilians.
New clashes began on 13 November, resulting in the deaths of one policeman, one soldier and six insurgents. Burmese police later arrested 36 suspected insurgents in connection to the attacks. Fighting continued and on the third day of the fighting, the death toll rose to 134 (102 insurgents and 32 security forces). The government later announced that 234 people suspected of being linked to the attackers had been arrested. Some of those arrested were later sentenced to death for their suspected involvement in the attack.
2017 Clashes between insurgents and the military continued in 2017. Burmese state media reported on 22 June that three insurgents had been killed by security forces during a two-day raid on an insurgent camp supposedly belonging to Harakah al-Yaqin, now calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). Authorities confiscated gunpowder, ski masks and wooden rifles suspected to have been used for training.
In February, the United Nations accused Myanmar's military of mass killings and gang rapes, as well as burning down villages over the course of their "clearance operations". It stated that the military's operations had "likely caused hundreds of deaths." Two senior UN officials working in its two separate agencies in Bangladesh stated that more than 1,000 may have died per testimonies gathered from Rohingyas. Meanwhile, Myanmar's presidential spokesman, Zaw Htay said that per latest reports from military commanders, fewer than 100 people had been killed. The government of Myanmar denied that there was a systematic campaign of rape, though acknowledges it may have been committed by "individual members of the security forces".
A police document obtained by Reuters in March listed 423 Rohingyas detained by the police since 9 October 2016, 13 of whom were children, the youngest being ten years old. Two police captains in Maungdaw verified the document and justified the arrests, with one of them saying, "We the police have to arrest those who collaborated with the attackers, children or not, but the court will decide if they are guilty; we are not the ones who decide." Myanmar police also claimed that the children had confessed to their alleged crimes during interrogations, and that they were not beaten or pressured during questioning. The average age of those detained is 34, the youngest is 10, and the oldest is 75.
In April the Myanmar Army deployed an additional 1,000 soldiers to Rakhine State, increasing the number of active troops in the region to 2,000.
Rakhine State police chief Sein Lwin announced on 27 June that security forces were on "high alert" after "masked assailants" killed several local administrators close to the Burmese government in the days prior. A week later on 4 July, a mob of at least a hundred Rakhine Buddhists in Sittwe attacked seven Rohingya men from Dapaing camp for internally displaced persons with bricks, killing one and severely injuring another. The Rohingya men were being escorted by police to Sittwe's docks to purchase boats, but were attacked despite armed guards being present nearby. According to a spokesman for the Burmese Ministry of Home Affairs, an unarmed junior policeman was with the Rohingya men at the time of the attack, but was unable to stop the attackers. One man was arrested in relation to the attacks on 26 July.
Bodies of slain locals have been discovered over the course of the conflict; the government has stated that they were victims of Rohingya insurgents. The bodies of three Rohingya locals who had worked closely with the local administration were found in shallow graves in Maungdaw on 21 January. The government suspected that they were murdered by Rohingya insurgents in a reprisal attack. Three decapitated bodies were found in Rathedaung Township on 31 July. According to a government official, they were murdered by Rohingya insurgents. The bodies of six ethnic Mro farmers, reportedly killed by Rohingya insurgents, were found in Maungdaw Township on 3 August.
In mid-August 2017, Bangladesh security forces had stepped up its border patrols, following reports of 1,100 Rohingya migrating into Bangladesh in the past two weeks amid fresh tensions in Rakhine state. After the October 2016 clashes in Myanmar, the refugee flow had slowed until hundreds more soldiers were deployed recently.
25 August 2017 attacks The government announced on 25 August that 71 people (one soldier, one immigration officer, 10 policemen and 59 insurgents) had been killed overnight during coordinated attacks by up to 150 insurgents on 24 police posts and the 552nd Light Infantry Battalion army base in Rakhine State. The Myanmar Army stated that the attack began at around 1:00 am, when insurgents armed with bombs, light weapons and machetes blew up a bridge. The army further stated that a majority of the attacks occurred around 3:00 am to 4:00 am.