A new wave of violence rocks Rohingya camps Premium

Refugees describe an environment of escalating brutality and fear, with growing concerns of being targeted by criminal gangs and claimed affiliates of Islamist armed groups

In a brazen, daylight attack earlier this month, a group of assailants knifed a Rohingya community leader to death in Cox’s Bazar and fled. The death of Mohammad Ebadullah, 35, sent a shockwave through the Kutupalong block where he had provided community service. It all played out when a delegation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), led by Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan, a British lawyer, was interviewing refugees in another block of the camp.

The murder of Ebadullah is part of a long list of killings by armed groups that stalk the world’s largest refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh. Armed groups killed over 40 Rohingya refugees in the camps in 2022, while at least 48 refugees were killed in the first half of 2023. Seven refugees, including a camp community leader and alleged members of militant groups, died in three incidents on July 6 and 7, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

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The rights group documented 26 cases of violence against Rohingya, including murder, kidnapping, torture, rape and sexual assault, and forced marriage, drawing on interviews with 45 Rohingya refugees between January and April 2023.

“Many of those killed have been Rohingya community leaders or their family members. Scores of refugees have been abducted for ransom and threatened or tortured. Several Rohingya reported the involvement of armed groups in sexual assault, forced marriage, and child recruitment,” Human Rights Watch said in a report released on July 13.

Refugees describe an environment of escalating brutality and fear, with growing concerns of being targeted by criminal gangs and claimed affiliates of Islamist armed groups.

Over a million Rohingya refugees, a stateless Muslim minority, have fled violence in Myanmar in successive waves of displacement since the early 1990s. The latest exodus began in August 2017, when violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, driving more than 742,000 to seek refuge in Bangladesh. Most arrived in the first three months of the crisis.