Rohingya Muslims are once more fleeing in droves towards Bangladesh, trying to escape the latest surge in violence in Rakhine state between a shadowy militant group and Myanmar’s military.
It is the newest chapter in the grim recent history of the Rohingya, a people of about one million reviled in Myanmar as illegal immigrants and denied citizenship.
This is a fact box on them:
Who are they?
The Rohingya are the world’s largest stateless community and of one of its most persecuted minorities.
Using a dialect similar to that spoken in Chittagong in southeast Bangladesh, the Sunni Muslims are loathed by many in majority-Buddhist Myanmar who see them as illegal immigrants and call them “Bengali”– even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.
They are not officially recognized as an ethnic group, partly due to a 1982 law stipulating that minorities must prove they lived in Myanmar prior to 1823 – before the first Anglo-Burmese war – to obtain nationality.
Most live in the impoverished western state of Rakhine but are denied citizenship and harassed by restrictions on movement and work.
Another 400,000 live in Bangladeshi camps, although Dhaka only recognizes a small portion as refugees.
Sectarian violence between the Rohingya and local Buddhist communities broke out in 2012, leaving more than 100 dead and the state segregated along religious lines.
More than 120,000 Rohingya fled over the following five years to Bangladesh and Southeast Asia, often braving perilous sea journeys controlled by brutal trafficking gangs.
Then last October things got much worse.
What happened in October?
Despite decades of persecution, the Rohingya largely eschewed violence.
But in October a small and previously unknown militant group – the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) – staged a series of well-coordinated and deadly attacks on security forces.
Myanmar’s military responded with a massive security crackdown. Some 87,000 new refugees flooded into Bangladesh bringing with them harrowing stories of murder, rape and burned villages.
The UN believes the army’s response many amount to ethnic cleansing, allegations denied by the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the army.
In recent months the day-to-day fighting died down, but civilians described being trapped between army “clearance operations” and an assassination campaign by the militants, who are murdering anyone suspected of collaboration.
Then last Friday the militants launched a new series of coordinated attacks, killing a dozen security personnel and sparking the latest refugee exodus as the military fought back.
More than 100 have died in the latest round of fighting.
What do we know about the militants?
They initially called themselves Harakah al-Yaqin (the Faith Movement) and its leader Ata Ulla adopted the rhetoric of other global jihadist movements.
The International Crisis Group says Ata Ullah was born to Rohingya parents in the Pakistani city of Karachi and grew up in Mecca. The group formed after the 2012 communal riots and gathered supporters before its 2016 attacks.
Myanmar authorities have previously said they have links to militants trained by the Pakistani Taliban. They declared them a terrorist organization over the weekend.
In more recent months the group has become less publicly Islamic, changing its name to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
Members are not well armed. The October ambushes were largely done with swords, sticks and a few firearms, some of them homemade – though they did make off with stolen guns and ammunition.
Photographs of seized items again last weekend showed rudimentary weapons, largely swords, clubs and homemade explosives.
But statements also say the ambushes are being carried out by groups 300-500 strong, suggesting ARSA ranks have grown in recent months.
What’s Suu Kyi doing about it?
De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced widespread criticism for her stance on the Rohingya.
Her administration has dismissed concerns about rights abuses and refused to grant visas to UN officials tasked with investigating such allegations.
Analysts say Suu Kyi is hampered by the politically incendiary nature of the issue in Myanmar and the fact she has little control over the military.
On Thursday a panel led by former UN chief Kofi Annan which she commissioned released a report on how peace can be brought back to Rakhine.
Among its recommendations was an end to the state-sanctioned persecution of the Rohingya and a path to citizenship for them.
Within hours of the report’s release, renewed fighting broke out.
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