Wai in Rathedaung township, killing at least 13 Rakhine civilians and injuring 20.69 The following day, a regime airstrike on a residential ward of Kyauktaw township killed six civilians, including one Rohingya. 18 civilians were injured, four of whom were Rohingya.70 Rohingya continue to flee to Bangladesh Rohingya refugees who manage to reach Bangladesh cite the famine and ongoing serious human rights violations by the Arakan Army as their reasons for embarking on the extremely difficult journey to try and reach the relative safety of Bangladesh. Since December last year the Arakan Army has banned river traffic on the Naf River, Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh, citing ‘military necessities and public security concerns’.71 It is very risky to cross the river during the day, with several reports of the AA abducting Bangladeshi fishermen and even shooting at them on the river.72 The Arakan Army routinely falsely accuses Rohingya civilians of harbouring ARSA fighters, as a pretext for conducting their own ‘clearance operations’ on Rohingya villages. “They are torturing us, evicting us from our homes, looting our rice, and forcing our men to build military barracks,” said Abdul Gafur, who recently arrived in Bangladesh.73 118,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since November 2023, according to the government of Bangladesh. The highest number of people arrived in June and July last year.74 There is also the risk of pushbacks by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). According to a source cited by Amnesty International, there were more than 5,000 cases of refoulement in 2024, where Bangladeshi border authorities forcibly returned Rohingya people fleeing the violence in violation of international law.75 In April, BROUK documented a case where 12 Rohingya were arrested by the BGB and pushed back to Myanmar, where they were detained by the AA and had to meet AA’s extortion demands to secure their release. BROUK has documented numerous grave violations by the Arakan Army over the reporting period, including forced displacement, land-grabbing acts of collective punishment, forced labour, forced recruitment, as well as abduction, incommunicado detention, and torture. These are set out in detail under the section Other atrocity crimes & the Arakan Army’s failure to comply with the provisional measures. BROUK has also collected information about the Arakan Army’s policies of persecution that heavily restrict basic freedoms for the Rohingya. Many of these policies and practices mirror the measures adopted by the military regime. Under international law, the State has the primary responsibility to prevent atrocity crimes, including by non-State armed actors such as the Arakan Army. States have the primary responsibility to prevent the commission of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, as well as incitement to 69 RFA, ‘Junta bombs rebel territory in western Myanmar, kills children, elderly’ (13 May 2025) available at <https://www.rfa.org/english/myanmar/2025/05/13/junta-bombs-western-myanmar/> accessed 18 May 2025. 70 BROUK reference ICJ11-OAC-SAC-AC-KTW-1. See also Myanmar Now, ‘Airstrikes by Myanmar’s military kill seven in Rakhine State, Mandalay Region’ (15 May 2025) available at <https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/airstrikes-bymyanmars-military-kill-seven-in-rakhine-state-mandalay-region/> accessed 18 May 2025. 71 Arakan Army, ‘Announcement Regarding the Indefinite Suspension of River Transportation in the Naf River (Arakan Side)’ (8 December 2024) available at <https://www.arakanarmy.net/post/announcement-regarding-the-indefinitesuspension-of-river-transportation-in-the-naf-river-arakan-si> accessed 21 May 2025. 72 Dhaka Tribune, ‘Arakan Army abducts three Bangladeshi fishermen from Naf River’ (12 May 2025) available at <https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/381040/arakan-army-abducts-three-bangladeshi-fishermen>, Anadalou Agency, ‘Myanmar's Arakan Army captures 56 Bangladeshi fishermen’ (6 March 2025) available at <https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/myanmars-arakan-army-captures-56-bangladeshi-fishermen/3501685#> accessed 21 May 2025. 73 Prothomalo, ‘118,000 more Rohingya entered Bangladesh in last 1 year, registration completed’ (5 May 2025) available at <https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/9nzkf9brov> accessed 18 May 2025. 74 ibid. 75 Amnesty International, ‘Myanmar/Bangladesh: Rohingya community facing gravest threats since 2017’ (24 October 2024) available at <https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/10/myanmar-bangladesh-rohingya-community-facing-gravestthreats-since-2017/> accessed 21 May 2025. 13