A/80/490 approximately 150,000 having arrived in refugee camps in Bangladesh in 2024 and 2025. Ethnic Rakhine have also begun to cross the border to escape the violence. 52. As it has done in opposition-controlled areas throughout the country, the junta has repeatedly attacked civilian populations in Rakhine State, killing and displacing both Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine people. In May 2024, soldiers massacred approximately 90 Rakhine villagers in Byain Phyu village near Sittwe, reportedly torturing the victims before killing them and gang-raping women. In January 2025, a military airstrike on Ramree Island, which is controlled by the Arakan Army, reportedly killed up to 40 civilians, including many women and children. Also that month, an airstrike on a crowded marketplace in Kyuaktaw, also controlled by the Arakan Army, killed around a dozen civilians. Junta jets pounded Arakan Army-controlled villages and towns in the weeks following the March earthquake, despite the junta’s declared “ceasefire”. 53. Junta forces have also burned Rakhine villages and Rakhine wards of larger towns, including Buthidaung. Soldiers have used civilians as human shields, establishing bases in camps for internally displaced people and the compounds of humanitarian organizations. Junta forces have confiscated aid and set fire to humanitarian facilities, including a World Food Programme warehouse holding 1,175 metric tons of food aid. 54. Junta forces have forcibly recruited thousands of Rohingya men and boys, many of whom have been deployed to the frontlines of the fight against the Arakan Army or used as human shields. Rohingya recruits have also been ordered to attack Rakhine civilian populations and destroy Rakhine property, escalating tensions between Rakhine and Rohingya populations. 55. In the past two years, Rohingya armed groups—notably the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO)—have joined in the fight against the Arakan Army, at times directly coordinating with or assisting junta forces. With a rear base in refugee camps in Bangladesh, these groups exploit, oppress and attack Rohingya civilians on both sides of the border. 56. ARSA and RSO have forcibly recruited Rohingya men and boys in the refugee camps in Bangladesh and deployed them to fight in Rakhine State. In many cases, youth have been abducted and forced across the border without recourse. In some cases, Rohingya militant groups have handed over or “sold” recruits directly to junta forces. 57. Rohingya militants have killed scores of Rohingya refugees in the camps in Bangladesh in recent years, including community and religious leaders, teachers and human rights defenders. An agreement between Rohingya armed groups reached in late 2024 reduced armed clashes between the groups but increased their control over the camp population. Abductions and kidnapping for ransom have reportedly increased since the agreement was concluded. 58. Inside Rakhine State, ARSA and RSO continue to attack the Arakan Army, commit atrocities against Rakhine civilians, and exploit the Rohingya community. Rohingya militants have reportedly been involved in the burning of hundreds or thousands of homes of ethnic Rakhine people. They have also been implicated in the killing of Rakhine civilians, including brutal executions. 59. ARSA and RSO attacks on Rakhine civilians increase the risk of retaliatory attacks by the Arakan Army that endanger Rohingya civilians. 60. Notwithstanding the abuses and exploitative actions of Rohingya armed groups, the Arakan Army itself has been implicated in grave human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture, killings and arson attacks. 61. Rohingya eyewitnesses described widespread and indiscriminate violence by the Arakan Army during its successful offensive to wrest control of northern Rakhine State from the junta in mid-2024. UN investigators reported that Arakan Army soldiers killed “scores” of Rohingya civilians from Htan Shauk Khan in Buthidaung Township in May 2024. Rohingya advocates have suggested far higher numbers of victims. Arakan Army spokespersons have vehemently denied responsibility for the killings, suggesting that images of the purported victims show the bodies of junta soldiers, not Rohingya civilians. 62. Also in May 2024, the Arakan Army reportedly burned Rohingya wards of Buthidaung town after junta forces fled. The destruction of large parts of Buthidaung town 9