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A Rohingya refugee man walks with a child in a market, at the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, March 15, 2025.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
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At least 65 Rohingya refugees were killed last year in clashes between rival militant groups competing for influence in Bangladeshi relief camps, a regional rights group said on Tuesday.
Around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim minority live in Bangladesh, most of whom arrived after fleeing a brutal 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation and other militant groups have for years waged a deadly battle for control of the camps.
Refugee leaders campaigning against their influence have also been attacked and killed.
Fortify Rights documented 65 deaths last year along with dozens of assaults, abductions and acts of extortion blamed on “militant and criminal groups” in the camps.
The figure is down from 90 killings recorded in 2023 by the rights group.
“Rohingya armed groups are wreaking havoc in Bangladesh and Myanmar with near complete impunity,” the watchdog’s director John Quinley told reporters in Dhaka at the launch of a new report into the violence.
“It’s not only infighting that kills members of these militant outfits. Civilians are also victims.”
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The report called on Bangladesh’s government to investigate the violence and hold perpetrators responsible, saying that some cases amounted to potential war crimes that warranted possible prosecution by international courts.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh last week where he promised to do “everything” possible to avoid looming cuts to humanitarian aid.
Funding shortfalls announced by the UN food agency this month could lead to a cut in monthly food vouchers from $12.50 to $6.00 per person at the camps from April.
Successive aid cuts have already caused immense hardship in the overcrowded settlements among Rohingya, who are reliant on aid and suffer from rampant malnutrition.
Bangladesh has struggled for years to support its immense refugee population, and Dhaka has said it is exploring ways to secure additional aid for Rohingya refugees.
Published – March 18, 2025 10:22 pm IST
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Militants killed dozens of Rohingya refugees last year: watchdog
