like oral rehydration salts are scarce and unaffordable for most. All respondents reported that multiple children in every location are extremely thin and showing signs of severe acute malnutrition. Although it was not possible to collect clinical data to confirm this, BROUK warns that severe acute malnutrition may already be prevalent among children in the areas surveyed. In Maungdaw township, respondents all reported outbreaks of diarrhoea in the past three months, and many are suffering from skin diseases. Some also reported experiencing chronic weakness or fatigue, which is a sign of severe acute malnutrition in adults. Before being moved to their current locations, some respondents were corralled at Hla Poe Khaung transit camp by the Arakan Army for many months in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions before they were allowed to return home. At least 10 children died during an outbreak of diarrhoea there in 2025. The AA’s conduct towards the Rohingya in the context of the famine in northern Rakhine State is compounding their already dire situation and undermining their chances of survival, forcing many Rohingya to flee. BROUK has collected information about the Arakan Army’s highly discriminatory policies and practices that are applied exclusively to the Rohingya on the grounds of their identity. These are iterations of very similar policies and practices applied by the regime and amount to policies of persecution. The AA is reported to have banned people from using the term “Rohingya” in the areas it controls in Rakhine State. AA officials have verbally warned that those who disobey this rule will face severe punishment. Movement restrictions imposed by the AA mean that Rohingya cannot fish, farm, go to mountain areas to cut firewood or forage for food. Rohingya need to pay for official permission from the AA to travel between villages and access the markets. BROUK has continued to document numerous grave violations by the Arakan Army, including forced displacement, land-grabbing, acts of collective punishment, forced labour, forced recruitment, as well as abduction, incommunicado detention, and torture, amounting to atrocity crimes. The Arakan Army has denied thousands of Rohingya IDPs the right to return to their homes in Buthidaung township and has seized their land. At the same time, BROUK has received multiple reports of the Arakan Army profiteering from the Rohingya’s desperation to flee. Only those who are close to the AA and pay bribes to the AA are reportedly allowed to operate as people smuggling groups and human trafficking gangs in both Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. 118,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since November 2023, according to the government of Bangladesh. According to data compiled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 7,800 Rohingya attempted to flee Myanmar by boat in 2024 – an 80 per cent increase compared to the previous year. Over 650 people died or were reported missing enroute in 2024. This year, 427 Rohingya are believed to have died at sea in the month of May alone in back-to-back incidents. Out of sheer desperation, more Rohingya are attempting this dangerous journey during the high seas of monsoon season. BROUK warns that its findings likely represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of the prevalence of severe malnutrition and starvation among Rohingya in Rakhine State. The rolling communication blackouts imposed by the regime make it very difficult to collect data. An additional consequence of the regime’s humanitarian access restrictions is that aid workers cannot conduct proper screening of severe acute malnutrition among Rohingya or mobilise the resources which are essential for saving lives. Humanitarian workers in Bangladesh have reported that new arrivals from Rakhine State exhibit visible signs of severe malnutrition, including uncontrollable shaking. Immediate humanitarian access, ready-to-use therapeutic food and food assistance is urgently needed to save lives in Rakhine State. 3