Rohingya Facing Renewed Violence, Forced Recruitment, Humanitarian Collapse
June 17, 2025
Under its Burma Task Force, Justice For All Canada is gravely concerned about the situation facing Rohingya civilians in Myanmar-Burma and Bangladesh. The situation has sharply deteriorated since early this year, with recent reports confirming that Rohingya communities are once again under siege from all sides, with no safe refuge and no access to justice.
According to a new report by the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, Rohingya in Rakhine are being starved under ongoing genocidal policies. The junta military’s obstruction of humanitarian aid in Rakhine and Burma-Myanmar as a whole directly breaches both UNSC Resolution 2669, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s provisional measures order to protect the Rohingya.
In February 2024, the Myanmar military forcibly conscripted Rohingya men and boys in northern Rakhine State, deploying them against the Arakan Army. According to local monitors in Buthidaung township, dozens were killed in clashes. Some survivors were detained by the Arakan Army, accused of being Myanmar soldiers. Human Rights Watch documented the impact of these incidents in June 2025, including the case of Dawood, a 19-year-old conscript who was injured, re-deployed, and later fled to Bangladesh.
On May 18, fires destroyed multiple Rohingya villages in Buthidaung, resulting in widespread arson and destruction as confirmed by satellite imagery. Although the junta and the Arakan Army have blamed each other, eyewitnesses report coordinated attacks on civilian areas, including women and children sheltering in religious sites. On May 20, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the escalating violence in Rakhine and called for compliance with the ICJ’s orders to protect Rohingya civilians. Even though the ICJ has no enforcement arm, no UN member state has taken steps to compel Myanmar-Burma’s compliance through sanctions, arms embargoes, or international prosecution.
Since 2024, almost 94,000 new Rohingya refugees have fled into Bangladesh. Bangladesh now hosts over one million Rohingya, 50% children, primarily in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char. In April 2025, the World Food Programme reported that funding shortages had forced another cut to monthly food assistance, now reduced to less than US$8 per person. Bangladesh’s interim government stated publicly that the country cannot manage another influx and urged international actors to support repatriation. Yet forced return remains unsafe and unlawful under international refugee protections.
Because the Arakan Army currently controls most of Rakhine State, Rohingya civilians face persecution both from the Arakan Army and the same military that carried out genocide in 2017. This has allowed arbitrary detentions, killings, and displacement to continue. On June 16, 2025, the UN High Commissioner warned that the junta had used the March earthquake as cover for further assaults on civilian areas, including schools and mosques. He described the situation in Myanmar as a lawless environment in which humanitarian access is blocked, civilians are targeted, and accountability is absent.
Regarding the upcoming UN High-Level Conference on Rohingya, the Burma Task Force urges the conference not to serve as a substitute for action, including;
We also call on government participants to reckon with the region’s lack of a legal system or humanitarian access, including the fact that the ICJ’s provisional measures from January 2020 remain unimplemented, with no subsequent concrete Security Council action.
As the violence against Rohingya has entered a new phase, it is now a question of how many more will be forced to suffer in its absence.
Under its Burma Task Force, Justice For All Canada is gravely concerned about the situation facing Rohingya civilians in Myanmar-Burma and Bangladesh. The situation has sharply deteriorated since early this year, with recent reports confirming that Rohingya communities are once again under siege from all sides, with no safe refuge and no access to justice.
According to a new report by the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, Rohingya in Rakhine are being starved under ongoing genocidal policies. The junta military’s obstruction of humanitarian aid in Rakhine and Burma-Myanmar as a whole directly breaches both UNSC Resolution 2669, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s provisional measures order to protect the Rohingya.
In February 2024, the Myanmar military forcibly conscripted Rohingya men and boys in northern Rakhine State, deploying them against the Arakan Army. According to local monitors in Buthidaung township, dozens were killed in clashes. Some survivors were detained by the Arakan Army, accused of being Myanmar soldiers. Human Rights Watch documented the impact of these incidents in June 2025, including the case of Dawood, a 19-year-old conscript who was injured, re-deployed, and later fled to Bangladesh.
On May 18, fires destroyed multiple Rohingya villages in Buthidaung, resulting in widespread arson and destruction as confirmed by satellite imagery. Although the junta and the Arakan Army have blamed each other, eyewitnesses report coordinated attacks on civilian areas, including women and children sheltering in religious sites. On May 20, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the escalating violence in Rakhine and called for compliance with the ICJ’s orders to protect Rohingya civilians. Even though the ICJ has no enforcement arm, no UN member state has taken steps to compel Myanmar-Burma’s compliance through sanctions, arms embargoes, or international prosecution.
Since 2024, almost 94,000 new Rohingya refugees have fled into Bangladesh. Bangladesh now hosts over one million Rohingya, 50% children, primarily in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char. In April 2025, the World Food Programme reported that funding shortages had forced another cut to monthly food assistance, now reduced to less than US$8 per person. Bangladesh’s interim government stated publicly that the country cannot manage another influx and urged international actors to support repatriation. Yet forced return remains unsafe and unlawful under international refugee protections.
Because the Arakan Army currently controls most of Rakhine State, Rohingya civilians face persecution both from the Arakan Army and the same military that carried out genocide in 2017. This has allowed arbitrary detentions, killings, and displacement to continue. On June 16, 2025, the UN High Commissioner warned that the junta had used the March earthquake as cover for further assaults on civilian areas, including schools and mosques. He described the situation in Myanmar as a lawless environment in which humanitarian access is blocked, civilians are targeted, and accountability is absent.
Regarding the upcoming UN High-Level Conference on Rohingya, the Burma Task Force urges the conference not to serve as a substitute for action, including;
- Governments attending must commit to expanding sanctions on junta military-linked entities.
- Ensuring humanitarian corridors into Rakhine remain unobstructed.
- Enforcing the safe resettlement of Rohingya refugees currently trapped in camps.
We also call on government participants to reckon with the region’s lack of a legal system or humanitarian access, including the fact that the ICJ’s provisional measures from January 2020 remain unimplemented, with no subsequent concrete Security Council action.
As the violence against Rohingya has entered a new phase, it is now a question of how many more will be forced to suffer in its absence.
1. While the U.S., Canada, the EU, and the UK imposed targeted sanctions on Myanmar military officials and entities since the 2021 coup, these measures have not been coordinated to enforce compliance with the ICJ’s provisional measures in The Gambia v. Myanmar. No binding enforcement action has been taken by the UN Security Council. See: ICJ Case Summary, Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar).