It’s been more than nine months since Rakhine State plunged into an even darker chapter, when attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army prompted a brutal army crackdown that has seen 700,000 people – overwhelmingly Muslims who identify as Rohingya – flee over the border into Bangladesh.
Cases of sexual assault, some involving murder, have increased in Rakhine State since the 2021 military coup, while the Arakan Army judicial system’s ability to deal with criminal cases has been hampered by the chaos caused by fighting with the regime.
BY Frontier