The United Nations has stated that the human rights situation of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities has further deteriorated, noting that while the military committed crimes against the Rohingya community in 2017, the Arakan Army (AA) also continued committing crimes against the Rohingya in 2024.
According to a statement from the UN Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that ethnic minorities, including the Rohingya, continue to face civilian attacks, forced displacement, arbitrary arrests, and destruction of homes at the hands of both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army.
From 2021 to August 2025, Myanmar’s military killed around 7,100 civilians—about one-third of them women and children—arrested 29,560 people for political reasons, and continues to hold over 22,000 of them in prisons, the report said.
As the conflict in Rakhine worsened, AA abuses forced hundreds of people to flee their homes, and since November 2023, about 150,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh. The report added that nearly one million Rohingya had already fled earlier due to atrocities by the Myanmar military.
The report documented several incidents, including:
August 2024 drone bombings in Maung Ni village and along the Nat River, where the AA massacred Rohingya.
May 17, 2024 arson in Buthidaung and the massacre of more than 600 Rohingya in Thandaw Khun village.
The UN High Commissioner also reiterated his call for Myanmar’s situation of ongoing human rights violations and entrenched impunity to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
