Arakan News Agency | Exclusive
Local sources reported that the Arakan Army detained 8 Rohingya individuals from the village of “Ali Youn” in Buthidaung city, Arakan State, western Myanmar, without providing any reasons for the arrests.
Local residents told Arakan News Agency that the first detention occurred on the evening of July 27, when three villagers were working in a rice field. They were raided by a group of Arakan Army soldiers and arrested.
Residents added that the next morning, Arakan Army members raided the village and conducted house-to-house searches, resulting in the arrest of four more individuals without clarifying the backgrounds or reasons for these detentions.
In a separate incident, the Arakan Army also arrested a father and son from the village of “Myoung Na” in the same town on July 24, while they were out collecting wild vegetables in the hills. Their disappearance was reported after they delayed returning home.
The son later returned on July 27 and confirmed to his family that the Arakan Army had detained him with his father on July 24. He was released later, while his father, named “Yuzalal Ahmed,” remains in detention. The son explained that they were taken to an unknown location and separated from each other, and he still does not know his father’s whereabouts.
The Arakan Army also arrested 60 Rohingya farmers on Friday while working in their farms and rice fields in two villages in Buthidaung city and took them to an unknown destination.
It is noteworthy that the Arakan Army controls approximately 90% of the state, and the Rohingya suffer from widespread abuses under their rule, including closing their homes after malicious complaints, seizing them, confiscating their valuable properties, and displacing many families. They impose strict movement restrictions between villages after restraining it through a network of security checkpoints at the entrances and exits of each Rohingya village.
The Arakan Army launched a military campaign in November 2023 against the Myanmar Army to control the state and managed to capture 14 out of 17 cities. This conflict has affected the Rohingya, who have suffered violence, forced displacement, and persecution from both sides, having previously endured a “genocide” campaign by the Myanmar Army in 2017, which forced approximately one million of them to flee to Bangladesh.
