2025 — Consolidation of AA Rule, Systematic Restrictions and Maritime Flight
By 2025, AA was no longer simply an advancing armed organization in much of northern Arakan; it was functioning as the de facto authority. Human-rights reporting increasingly concerned systems of governance and control rather than only battlefield conduct.
OHCHR and independent organizations documented allegations of forced recruitment, forced labour, arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, movement restrictions, confiscation of homes and farmland, extortion, taxation, curfews, fishing and livelihood restrictions, and punishment of families whose sons resisted recruitment. AA has denied forcibly recruiting people.
February 2025 onward — Nassawr Para/Hnget Thay: Hoyyar Siri survivors confined
AA ordered surviving residents of Hoyyar Siri to relocate to a makeshift settlement at Nassawr Para/Hnget Thay, approximately three kilometres from their destroyed village. Residents told Human Rights Watch that movement was restricted and that AA guards monitored the settlement.
Residents described inadequate food and medical care, forced unpaid labour and compulsory tending of livestock. Former residents remained unable to return to Hoyyar Siri. Satellite imagery documented the settlement’s growth through 2025 and early 2026.
Satellite imagery published by Human Rights Watch showing the AA-controlled makeshift camp near Nassawr Para on 25 February 2026. © Planet Labs / Human Rights Watch, 2026.
Source: Human Rights Watch — Hoyyar Siri Report
March 2025 — Rohingya man reportedly abducted and beheaded
Fortify Rights interviewed the brother of a Rohingya man allegedly taken from his home by 10 to 15 uniformed AA fighters around the 20th day of Ramadan. The family subsequently found his body in a rice sack in nearby forest; he had reportedly been decapitated.
Investigators withheld the village name to protect witnesses. The precise location should therefore not be guessed or published from unverified social-media claims.
Source: Fortify Rights — 23 July 2025
March–April 2025 — Pa Wet Chaung: punishment for refusing compulsory work
A Rohingya man from Pa Wet Chaung, Maungdaw Township, said AA ordered him to perform night sentry duty. He refused because he did not want to leave his wife alone at night.
He was reportedly arrested, beaten and subsequently forced to construct a road for ten days.
Source: Fortify Rights — Forced Labour Investigation
April–May 2025 — Kin Taung: forced recruitment and punishment of families
Human Rights Watch interviewed Rohingya families who said AA attempted to recruit their sons. One father from Kin Taung said his son was selected. When AA could not locate the son, the father was reportedly detained for 35 days and repeatedly beaten.
After the father refused to surrender his son and went into hiding, he said AA burned the family’s house. Another family described hiding a 17-year-old boy in different villages for approximately two months because AA was searching for him.
Source: Human Rights Watch — 28 July 2025
May 2025 — Kin Taung Rohingya cemetery demolished
Two villagers told Human Rights Watch that AA demolished the Rohingya cemetery in Kin Taung and instructed residents to bury deceased relatives in paddy fields.
The incident is significant because it indicates that restrictions and coercion extended beyond physical security and livelihoods into religious and community life.
Source: Human Rights Watch — Arakan Army Oppresses Rohingya Muslims
10 May 2025 — 507 Rohingya flee by boat; more than 400 drown or disappear
The Arakan Rohingya National Council (ARNC) reported that on 10 May 2025 two motorboats carrying a combined 507 Rohingya capsized while the passengers were fleeing AA violence in the Mayu frontier region.
According to ARNC, the first boat carried 267 people and sank off Pine La Wae in Ye Township, with only 66 survivors. The second reportedly carried about 240 people and encountered disaster near the Tanintharyi coast, with only 21 survivors. On ARNC’s figures, more than 400 Rohingya died or disappeared.
ARNC reported survivor allegations that both boats had been pursued and endangered by AA forces and said AA actions directly contributed to the disaster. This specific attribution should be presented as an ARNC and survivor allegation. UNHCR independently documented catastrophic Rohingya maritime losses during the same period but did not independently establish every element of ARNC’s attribution.
Source: ARNC — Latest Crackdown on Rohingya by Arakan Army
Source: ARNC — History
Source: UNHCR — Maritime deaths in May 2025
July 2025 — Sein Hnyin Pyar and Tha Peik Taung: nearly 60 farmers reportedly detained
ARNC reported that on 25 July nearly 60 Rohingya farmers were detained while working on their own farmland in Sein Hnyin Pyar and Tha Peik Taung villages in Buthidaung Township. According to ARNC, no prior warning had been given that the farmers were prohibited from entering the land.
ARNC said the detainees were taken first to Kyauk Sar Taing and then transferred to an unknown location believed to be near Buthidaung. Their whereabouts were unknown when ARNC published its statement. This remains an ARNC-documented allegation requiring independent follow-up.
Source: ARNC — 31 July 2025
May 2024–July 2025 — Arshad: detention, alleged torture and later death
ARNC documented the case of Arshad, a 22-year-old Rohingya from Buthidaung. According to ARNC, he had been detained by AA for approximately eight months, from 29 May 2024 until December 2024, and was severely tortured during detention.
He eventually reached Bangladesh but died on 26 July 2025. Some medical details in ARNC’s account have not been independently established by a forensic report and should therefore remain explicitly attributed to ARNC.
Source: ARNC — 31 July 2025
15–late July 2025 — Shunamia, Pauktaw Township
ARNC reported that Shunamia, a 35-year-old Rohingya man, was detained by AA in Pauktaw Township on 15 July. After nearly two weeks, AA reportedly claimed that he had escaped.
His body was discovered the following day near a Rakhine village under suspicious circumstances. ARNC said community leaders had been denied permission to recover the body. This incident requires independent investigation but should be preserved as a documented allegation.
Source: ARNC — 31 July 2025
25 July 2025 — returned Rohingya family reportedly flees again
ARNC documented a five-member Rohingya family that had previously lived in Camp 12 in Cox’s Bazar and voluntarily returned to Maungdaw. According to ARNC, the family subsequently fled back to Bangladesh after facing torture, threats and extortion by AA.
The case is significant because it illustrates the risks facing potential returnees and the difficulty of discussing safe, voluntary repatriation while serious allegations of abuse continue in AA-controlled northern Arakan.
Source: ARNC — 31 July 2025
2025 — Shwe Pyae, Kyauktaw: detention, torture and forced labour
A 46-year-old Rohingya from Shwe Pyae village in Kyauktaw Township told Fortify Rights that he endured approximately five months in AA detention. He described being forced to work, beaten with a cane, having his head struck against a tree and being tied hand and foot in the sun.
He eventually escaped and reached Malaysia.
Source: Fortify Rights — Forced Labour Investigation
November 2025 — maritime tragedy involving Rohingya from Buthidaung
ARNC reported a major boat disaster near the Thailand–Malaysia maritime boundary. According to ARNC, the journey began with a larger vessel carrying approximately 300 Rohingya from Buthidaung Township. Passengers were reportedly transferred onto smaller boats as they approached the Malaysia–Thailand region, and one vessel capsized.
UNHCR and IOM independently confirmed a serious maritime tragedy in the same area. Their reporting concerned a capsized boat carrying up to about 70 people from Myanmar, including Rohingya, with deaths, rescues and people missing. ARNC’s figure of approximately 300 refers to the wider original group and should not be treated as the passenger count on the particular boat confirmed to have capsized.
ARNC described the tragedy as a consequence of continuing persecution and displacement in Arakan.
Source: ARNC — Rohingya Sea Tragedy Is a Result of Genocidal Persecution in Arakan
Source: UNHCR/IOM — November 2025 maritime tragedy
2025 overall — nearly 900 Rohingya dead or missing at sea
UNHCR reported that 2025 became the deadliest year on record for Rohingya maritime movements. More than 6,500 Rohingya attempted sea crossings and nearly 900 were reported dead or missing in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal.
These nearly 900 deaths cannot be attributed entirely to AA. Some vessels departed Bangladesh, and aid shortages, statelessness, trafficking and lack of legal opportunities also drove maritime movement. The May and November cases nevertheless demonstrate that Rohingya leaving AA-controlled Arakan formed an important part of the wider exodus.
Source: UNHCR — 2025 Was Deadliest Year for Rohingya Maritime Movements