Rakhine State: Long-Standing Persecution and Renewed Violence

The crisis in Rakhine State must be understood within a much longer history of persecution and exclusion. Violence there did not begin with the 2021 coup. For decades, the region has been marked by discrimination, intercommunal tensions and recurring armed conflict, with the Rohingya facing some of the most severe abuses in the country.

The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority, have long been denied citizenship and deprived of basic rights. Over many years they have faced restrictions on movement, limited access to education and healthcare, and exclusion from political life. These structural forms of discrimination created the conditions for repeated displacement and violence well before the current phase of the conflict.

The situation reached one of its most devastating moments in 2017, when Myanmar’s military launched a large-scale crackdown in Rakhine State. That campaign involved widespread reports of sexual violence, the destruction of Rohingya villages and the killing of thousands of civilians. At least 742,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh, adding to earlier waves of displacement. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than one million Rohingya refugees have fled violence through several waves of displacement since the 1990s. More than 960,000 are currently living in Bangladesh, while others have sought refuge in countries including Thailand, India, Indonesia and Nepal.

Since the February 2021 coup, the situation in Rakhine has deteriorated further. As Myanmar’s wider conflict has intensified, the region has become the site of renewed and increasingly complex violence. The Arakan Army (AA), which presents itself as representing the Buddhist Rakhine majority and is seeking greater autonomy or independence, has been fighting Myanmar’s military for control of the state.

In this context, concerns have grown not only about clashes between armed actors, but also about the direct targeting of civilians. According to the United Nations, the situation is especially alarming for the Rohingya, who are not simply caught in the crossfire but have, in some cases, been specifically targeted by the Arakan Army.

Events in Buthidaung illustrated the severity of this escalation. After the Arakan Army took control of the town in May 2024, reports described Rohingya neighbourhoods and nearby villages being shelled, looted and burned. Residents said evacuation orders were issued before fires spread through the town, while thousands of Rohingya displaced from surrounding areas were sheltering in homes, schools and medical facilities. Witnesses described scenes of panic and destruction, with heavy weapons used and houses set alight. Some elderly people and children were reportedly unable to escape.

The violence then spread to Maungdaw, another predominantly Rohingya town near the Bangladeshi border. In June of that year, the Arakan Army laid siege to the area and warned residents to leave. Those who remained faced increasingly severe conditions, with insecurity confining civilians to their homes and access to food becoming more precarious. The humanitarian situation worsened further when a World Food Programme warehouse in Maungdaw, holding 1,175 metric tons of food and supplies, enough to support 64,000 people for a month, was looted and burned.

One of the deadliest episodes followed on 5 August, when thousands of Rohingya attempting to flee across the Naf Riverinto Bangladesh were struck by a drone attack. According to the Associated Press, at least 150 people were killed, although some reports suggested the death toll may have been higher. Médecins Sans Frontières reported that women and children made up nearly half of those injured. Activists and local media continued to report attacks on villages in the days that followed.

At the same time, violence in Rakhine has not been confined to one community alone. A Human Rights Watch report found that both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army had been implicated in extrajudicial killings and widespread arson against civilians in the state. Ethnic Rakhine communities have also suffered. In April 2024, the junta, together with several Rohingya armed factions, reportedly attacked and burned Rakhine neighbourhoods in Buthidaung and surrounding villages.

The conflict has also been aggravated by forced recruitment. The military, with the support of some Rohingya armed groups, has reportedly recruited thousands of Rohingya men and boys from both Rakhine State and refugee camps in Bangladesh. Between March and June 2024, around 1,800 refugees were reportedly forcibly recruited and transferred into Rakhine. Some were said to have been compelled to participate in staged demonstrations against the Arakan Army. Such practices, together with hate speech and misinformation, have further deepened tensions between Rohingya and Rakhine communities.

These events form the background to the current situation in Rakhine: a region where discrimination and displacement have been entrenched for decades, and where the conflict since the coup has intensified existing patterns of abuse.

That longer pattern was reinforced again in December 2025, when a military air strike hit Mrauk-U General Hospital in western Rakhine. According to aid workers, local sources and media reports, the strike killed at least 31 people and injured dozens more. The hospital, a 300-bed facility, was reportedly full at the time because many healthcare services across Rakhine had already been disrupted by the fighting. Reports from the scene described severe destruction, fire and large numbers of dead and wounded civilians.

This incident did not mark the start of violence in Rakhine. Rather, it showed that the crisis was continuing. Conflict monitors have reported that Myanmar’s military has increased its use of air strikes year after year since the civil war began after the coup. By late 2025, the Arakan Army had become one of the most powerful armed opponents of the junta and was reported to control nearly all of Rakhine State, while also facing accusations of abuses, including against Rohingya communities.

Civilians, and Especially Children, Cannot Be Left 

Taken together, these developments show that Myanmar’s crisis is both nationwide and deeply rooted. It is shaped by the aftermath of the coup, but also by decades of unresolved violence, discrimination and impunity. In regions such as Rakhine, these dynamics are particularly acute. Yet the suffering extends across the country, from western Myanmar to Bago and beyond.

For civilians, the costs are immediate and devastating: death, displacement, detention, hunger, loss of healthcare and the destruction of homes and communities. For children, the consequences are even more far-reaching. Many have grown up amid war, repeated displacement and interrupted schooling. They do not only need protection from violence. They also need access to education, and safe spaces in which they can begin to rebuild their futures.

More than ever, children in Myanmar need sustained international attention and meaningful support. Their lives should not be defined by conflict, and their futures should not be abandoned to it.

Despite the ongoing crisis in Myanmar, Children of the Mekong continues to support vulnerable children and their education. You can help give a child stability, hope and the chance to build a future beyond the conflict.