Arakan News Agency | Exclusive
Local sources in Arakan state, western Myanmar, reported that the Arakan Army (AA), the separatist group controlling the state, detained 25 Rohingya families from Maungdaw township and forced them into hard labor in the state.
An Arakan News Agency correspondent reported that the Arakan Army summoned the families on Tuesday to the Maungdaw police station, allegedly for interrogation. They were released before being re-arrested the next day and transferred to Buthidaung town for forced labor on its streets.
Entire families, including men, women, children, and the elderly, were summoned, eyewitnesses confirmed that the families are periodically taken out of detention to pick up trash, clean drains, and clear bushes on the streets of Buthidaung.
He added that all the detained families were returnees to Maungdaw after being displaced by the fighting and returned with permission from the Arakan Army. Many families of various ethnicities had fled to Yangon and other Myanmar cities, as well as to neighboring Bangladesh, due to the fighting. However, only Rohingya were detained after their return.
Two Rohingya children died in an Arakan Army detention center from diarrhea, amidst a lack of adequate water, food, and medical care, and ongoing forced labor and abuses against the Rohingya.
The Arakan Army launched a military campaign in November 2023 against the Myanmar military to control the state and has since captured 14 of the 17 towns. The conflict has also affected the Rohingya, who have been subjected to violence, forced displacement, and persecution by both sides. They were also subjected to a “genocidal” campaign by the Myanmar military in 2017, which forced nearly a million Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.
