The Ongoing Erasure of the Rohingya: A Fight for Survival and Accountability in Myanmar

August 25 marks an excruciatingly painful anniversary for the Rohingya, recalling the devastating 2017 genocidal campaign orchestrated by the Myanmar military. During those atrocities, babies and young children were thrown into fires, women and young girls were systematically gang-raped and mutilated, entire fleeing families were slaughtered, and others were burned alive inside their homes. More than 700,000 members of the Rohingya community were ultimately forced to flee to Bangladesh.

As an ethnic Muslim-majority group with their own Indo-Aryan language, the Rohingya have endured prolonged discrimination and persecution in Myanmar. Currently, roughly 1.2 million Rohingya remain confined to camps in Bangladesh, while a fresh wave of violence drives additional families from their homes in Rakhine state, with many others risking their lives at sea.

Amid this bleak backdrop, international justice initiatives in Argentina and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) offer a glimmer of hope, though the global community continues to fall short of its protective commitments.

The Genocide Never Stopped

The power dynamics within Rakhine have shifted dramatically over the past two years, with the Arakan Army (AA)—an ethnic Rakhine armed group—taking control of most of the region, including core Rohingya northern territories. Tragically, this shift has not halted the brutality. Documented evidence reveals mass killings, targeted civilian attacks, forced recruitment, forced labour, detention, and severe movement restrictions under AA authority.

Sexual violence persists as a tool of oppression, mirroring the military's 2017 campaign. Observers note that the Arakan Army is effectively completing what the Myanmar military started, driving communities from their villages, confiscating land, and establishing new Rakhine settlements—sometimes utilizing Rohingya forced labour to build them.

Nowhere Safe to Go

Since late 2023, over 150,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh amid steep cuts to international humanitarian funding and the closure of learning centres in Cox’s Bazar. Traffickers frequently exploit those desperate to escape, leading to deadly maritime disasters, such as the July tragedy where two boats carrying more than 500 Rohingya sank.

Despite mounting anti-Rohingya sentiment in host nations, the community maintains its desire to return home—provided their citizenship, equal rights, and ancestral lands are fully restored.

For nine years, leaders of the Myanmar military have operated with absolute impunity. Organizations like the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) have taken up the mantle of accountability, utilizing universal jurisdiction in Argentina to secure international arrest warrants for 22 Myanmar military officials and three civilians, including military government leaders Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and General Soe Win. Additionally, a verdict is anticipated soon in the genocide case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar at the ICJ.

However, legal milestones are insufficient if the community faces total erasure on the ground. Governments, the United Nations Security Council, the United Kingdom, and international bodies must enforce arrest warrants, impose targeted sanctions on the AA and the Myanmar military, restore humanitarian funding, and ensure that justice is delivered before no Rohingya remain in Myanmar.