The Rohingya genocide, Myanmar: 13,700-43,000 (oct 1, 2016 – jan 1, 2026)

Description:

The Rohingya Genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Muslim Rohingya people carried out by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) under Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar Police, Border Guard Police, and civilian militia groups recruited by the military against the Rohingya Muslim minority in northern Rakhine State (formerly Arakan State), Myanmar between October 9, 2016 (initial military crackdown following attacks on police posts) and present day (ongoing, with renewed escalation from November 2023 onward when the Arakan Army began participating in abuses), occurring in two major phases: the first military crackdown from October 2016 to January 2017, and the second and most severe from August 25, 2017 onward, with an estimated death toll between 6,700 (Médecins Sans Frontières conservative estimate for August-September 2017 alone, not including October 2016-January 2017 phase) and 25,000 (higher estimates including all phases, with at least 10,000 killed according to UN estimates and various studies suggesting deaths in the tens of thousands).

The Tatmadaw and allied forces also engaged in mass executions and massacres (including entire villages wiped out), systematic gang rape and sexual violence (thousands of women and girls raped, often in front of family members before being killed), burning alive of civilians including children in locked houses, beheading and dismemberment, infanticide (babies and young children thrown into fires or killed with machetes), extrajudicial killings and summary executions, torture and severe beatings, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, forced labor, systematic burning and destruction of Rohingya villages (at least 392 villages destroyed, with satellite imagery showing 1,250 houses burned in just five villages in November 2016, and over 288 villages destroyed in 2017 alone), persecution and deprivation of liberty constituting apartheid (the 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar are confined to camps and villages without freedom of movement, cut off from adequate food, healthcare, education, and livelihoods), forced displacement of over 1 million people (creating the world's largest refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh), restrictions on marriage and childbearing, denial of citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law rendering Rohingya stateless, confiscation of property and land, destruction of mosques and Islamic religious sites, prevention of births through forced sterilization and restrictions on reproduction, use of landmines planted along escape routes to kill and maim fleeing refugees, attacks during flight to Bangladesh (refugees killed even after crossing the border), systematic targeting based on ethnic and religious identity with clear genocidal intent, and complete erasure of Rohingya presence from vast areas of Rakhine State.It has been labeled as genocide by the United States (Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally determined on March 21, 2022 that the Myanmar military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya, marking only the eighth time the U.S. has made such a determination), the UN Fact-Finding Mission (2018 report found sufficient evidence to warrant investigation and prosecution of senior military officials for genocide, and 2019 update declared Myanmar's Rohingya population living under threat of genocide), the International Court of Justice (which in January 2020 unanimously ordered Myanmar to take all measures to prevent genocide and protect Rohingya from genocidal acts in provisional measures ruling, with the case brought by The Gambia on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation still ongoing), the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (2017 joint report with Fortify Rights titled "They Tried to Kill Us All" documented mounting evidence of genocide), then-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein (who called the campaign a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" in September 2017), genocide scholars and international law experts who characterize the atrocities as meeting all criteria for genocide under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention including clear genocidal intent ("dolus specialis"), Human Rights Watch (which extensively documented crimes against humanity and genocidal acts), Fortify Rights (whose detailed investigations demonstrated genocidal intent and systematic planning), numerous international human rights organizations, and The Gambia (representing the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which brought the genocide case before the ICJ).The classification as genocide has achieved substantial international recognition including formal U.S. determination, ICJ provisional measures ordering genocide prevention, and ongoing ICJ genocide case examining state responsibility.

However, Myanmar has never acknowledged genocide and continues to deny atrocities occurred, claiming military operations were legitimate counter-insurgency against terrorists.

The Myanmar military junta that seized power in February 2021 has shown no willingness to address systematic discrimination or allow Rohingya to return safely. No individual perpetrators have been prosecuted for genocide, though the International Criminal Court is investigating crimes against humanity related to forced deportation, and various countries are exploring universal jurisdiction prosecutions.

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