More Than 1,504 Rohingya Civilians Killed, Raped, Detained or Disappeared': DPRI Report Exposes Arakan Army's Systematic Campaign of Atrocities From 2022 to 2026
A detailed documentation report by the Department of Public Relations and Information has recorded more than 1,504 Rohingya civilian victims of massacres, killings, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, and forced disappearance committed by the Arakan Army in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships between 2022 and March 2026. The report identifies a systematic and recurring pattern of atrocities and calls for urgent international accountability.
Photo Source: AI Generated / The Daily East
ARAKAN STATE, Myanmar, More than 1,504 Rohingya civilians were killed, arbitrarily detained, raped, or forcibly disappeared at the hands of the Arakan Army between 2022 and March 2026, according to a detailed documentation report published by the Department of Public Relations and Information (DPRI). The report, based on verified victim records, eyewitness testimonies, survivor interviews, photographs, videos, burial records, and satellite imagery, presents what it describes as a systematic campaign of atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority in northern Arakan State.
Of the 1,504 documented victims, DPRI was able to independently verify 823 individual cases. The verified figures include 628 civilians killed, 134 arbitrarily detained, 1 enforced disappearance, and 60 survivors of attacks. The report emphasises that these figures represent only those DPRI could document and verify, and that the actual scale of crimes "is much higher than we documented" due to ongoing conflict, displacement, destruction of evidence, and restricted access to affected areas.
Children accounted for 37 percent of documented victims, with adults above 18 making up 51 percent and 12 percent unidentified by age. The victims include men and women, pregnant women, children, elderly persons, persons with disabilities, farmers, fishermen, religious leaders, and entire families who were simply seeking refuge from the violence around them.
Decades of Persecution, A New Chapter of Killings
The Rohingya have faced successive waves of persecution in Arakan State since 1942, with mass violence and displacement recorded in 1978, 1991 and 1992, 2012, 2016, and the genocide of 2017, when more than 700,000 Rohingya were driven across the border into Bangladesh by the Myanmar military's clearance operations.
Those who remained behind in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships continued to live under severe restrictions on citizenship, movement, education, healthcare and livelihoods. These conditions, the DPRI report states, left the community "vulnerable to further persecution."
When armed conflict between the Arakan Army and Myanmar's military junta escalated sharply in late 2023, the Rohingya communities remaining in northern Arakan found themselves trapped once again. This time, however, a significant portion of the violence against them came not from the Myanmar military, but from the Arakan Army, the ethnic Rakhine armed group that had presented itself to the world as a liberation force for the people of Rakhine State.
The Htan Shauk Khan Massacre: 2 May 2024
The single deadliest incident documented in the report is the massacre at Htan Shauk Khan, also known as Hoyyar Siri village, in Buthidaung Township on 2 May 2024.
The village had become a gathering point for Rohingya families who had been displaced from surrounding areas and were seeking safety. When the situation deteriorated further, civilians attempted to flee toward Buthidaung town. According to eyewitness testimonies recorded in the report, Arakan Army militants positioned themselves around the village, deployed heavy weapons including 120mm mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, blocked civilians from escaping, and opened fire on them as they attempted to flee.
DPRI verified 353 victims from this single incident, including 344 killed and 9 survivors. The verified victims included men, women, pregnant women, children, elderly persons and persons with disabilities. Survivor accounts indicated that more than 600 Rohingya civilians were believed to have perished in and around the village that day. The gap between the survivor estimate and the verified figure reflects the scale of destruction and the difficulty of documenting deaths in an active conflict zone.
Tamin Chaung: A Refuge Turned Into a Killing Ground
Tamin Chaung village had become a place of refuge for thousands of Rohingya civilians fleeing violence from neighbouring villages. On 17 May 2024, Arakan Army militants attacked with drones and direct gunfire. Seventy Rohingya civilians were killed on that single day.
The following day, 18 May, the attacks continued. Two more civilians were killed, 41 were detained, and 33 survived with injuries. DPRI documented 146 directly affected civilians across the two days of attacks, with 72 killed in total and survivors leaving behind homes, belongings and everything they had built.
Karuk Chaung: An Entire Village Burned to Ash
On 15 May 2024, Arakan Army militants surrounded Rohingya civilians who were attempting to flee Karuk Chaung village through paddy fields. Using drones and gunfire, the militants attacked the fleeing group. Women, children and elderly persons were among the 16 civilians killed.
The report states that Arakan Army militants subsequently burned the entire village to the ground. Karuk Chaung, which had been home to a community of Rohingya families for generations, was "completely depopulated" in the aftermath.
Nga Kyi Tauk: Repeated Attacks Over Months
The report documents repeated Arakan Army attacks on Nga Kyi Tauk village between 30 March and 10 July 2024, resulting in 50 Rohingya civilians killed, 8 detained, and 1 child missing.
The pattern of attacks unfolded in waves. A drone strike on 30 March killed five civilians, including women and children. On 14 May, 14 Rohingya civilians who were travelling between villages were detained and subsequently killed. On 15 May, militants surrounded fleeing civilians and attacked with drones and gunfire, killing 21. On 17 May, the nearby village of Tamin Chaung, which had sheltered those displaced from Nga Kyi Tauk, was also attacked.
The Maung Ni Mass Killing: 4 August 2024
Four days before the Naf River massacre, Arakan Army forces entered Maung Ni village and killed 35 Rohingya civilians. Among the dead were 16 men and 19 women, including two pregnant women who were approximately eight months along. Elderly persons, children and religious figures were also among the victims.
According to the documentation, civilians sheltering in two houses were captured and killed. Their bodies were then placed inside rice sacks, treated with chemicals believed to be acid, burned, and left in farmland. Displaced residents who returned to the area later discovered scattered human skeletal remains in the same location.
The Naf River Massacre: 5 to 6 August 2024
By early August 2024, thousands of Rohingya from Maung Ni, Myoma Taung, Myoma Kayin Tan, Ali Para, Paung Zar, Shiddar Para and other villages had made their way toward the Naf River, the natural boundary between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Carrying infants, supporting elderly relatives and heavily pregnant women, families gathered on the riverbank believing that crossing into Bangladesh was their last remaining hope of survival.
What happened next was one of the deadliest single events in the entire crisis.
According to the DPRI report, Arakan Army militants launched drone attacks, large explosive strikes, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar fire directly at the thousands of civilians gathered near the river. More than 200 Rohingya civilians were killed on 5 August alone. During the chaos, more than 200 additional people lost their lives between 5 and 6 August, including those who drowned after boats capsized or while attempting to swim across the Naf River.
The report's overall finding is that more than 400 Rohingya civilians were killed during the 5 to 6 August attacks. DPRI was able to verify 78 victims directly, including 64 killed and 14 survivors. It states clearly that the actual death toll is believed to be significantly higher, as many victims were never identified and numerous bodies could not be recovered from the river.
Sexual Violence: More Than 112 Women and Girls
The DPRI report documents sexual violence as one of the most severe and systematic forms of persecution carried out against Rohingya women and girls between 2024 and March 2026.
The documented abuses include rape, gang rape, sexual violence during displacement, sexual abuse in detention facilities, sexual slavery, and sexual assault carried out during night raids inside victims' homes. Incidents were documented across Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, and other parts of northern Arakan State.
Women and girls were reportedly assaulted while fleeing their villages, while seeking refuge, after being detained, inside detention facilities, inside their own homes, and during night raids by armed personnel. Some victims and their families were threatened directly to prevent them from reporting the crimes.
The report confirms that more than 112 Rohingya women and girls were subjected to rape, gang rape, and other forms of sexual violence. It identifies Say Taung village in Buthidaung Township as having more than 100 women and girls reportedly subjected to repeated sexual abuse while held in detention. The report acknowledges that many victims remain silent out of fear of retaliation and social stigma, and concludes that the actual number of incidents "may be significantly higher than the number currently documented."
Not one allegation of sexual violence, the report states, has resulted in an independent investigation or any meaningful accountability.
Confiscation of Land, Homes and Livelihoods
Beyond the killings, the DPRI report documents the systematic confiscation and redistribution of Rohingya-owned land and property by the Arakan Army following the displacement of communities from their villages.
The confiscated assets include residential land, agricultural land, commercial buildings, shops, warehouses, livestock, vehicles, cash, gold, household valuables, farming equipment and business inventory. The report describes the continued occupation and commercial use of Rohingya-owned land as creating what could become a permanent obstacle to the community's return, as displaced families may arrive home to find their houses destroyed, their land occupied by others and their property repurposed for new settlements.
Rohingya farmers, traders and shopkeepers who lost their land, businesses and equipment during the displacement have been left, in many cases, without any independent source of income or livelihood.
Arbitrary Detention and Enforced Disappearance
The report documents a recurring pattern of Rohingya civilians being detained by Arakan Army forces on accusations of collaboration with the Myanmar military. In documented case after documented case, DPRI notes that families and eyewitnesses rejected those allegations and that "no evidence has been identified to substantiate the accusations made against the detainees."
In Kyaw Hla Pyin village alone, 8 Rohingya civilians were detained on 2 June 2024 and another 15 were detained on 9 August 2024. In Kyauk Chaung and Leik Yea on 30 November 2025, 17 women and 24 children, including infants, were confined inside a house while 42 Rohingya men were separated and taken to forested areas. By 3 December, 32 detainees had been released. Ten remained in detention, their whereabouts unknown.
The report also documents the killing of five displaced Rohingya men from Thayet Oak village whose bodies were found floating in coastal waters after they were detained, as well as the killing and disappearance of three Rohingya teenagers on 20 December 2024 and the enforced disappearance of a father and son on 28 March 2026.
Calls for Accountability
The DPRI report closes with a series of urgent recommendations directed at the international community.
It calls on the United Nations to strengthen monitoring of the human rights situation in Arakan State and give equal attention to violations committed by all perpetrators, not only the Myanmar military. It calls on the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar to collect and preserve evidence of killings, massacres, arbitrary detention, sexual violence and property confiscation. It calls on the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and other accountability mechanisms to consider evidence of crimes committed against Rohingya civilians in Arakan State.
To the Arakan Army directly, the report demands an immediate end to attacks on Rohingya civilians, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement, extortion and property confiscation. It also calls for the disclosure of the whereabouts of all detained and disappeared persons, the release of all unlawfully held civilians, and unrestricted access for independent international investigators and humanitarian organisations.
The report emphasises that any future repatriation of Rohingya must be voluntary, safe, dignified and informed, and can only take place when conditions allow for a secure and sustainable return. That moment, the documentation makes clear, remains far away.
DPRI states that its documentation work is continuing, covering crimes committed against Rohingya civilians by both the Arakan Army and the Myanmar military across Arakan State, and that all evidence will be preserved for the historical record and for future accountability processes.
Reporting based on the DPRI Report on Serious Crimes Committed by the Arakan Army in Arakan State from 2022 to March 2026.