International

Young men trapped between war and conscription in Myanmar’s Rakhine

Published

2 years ago

June 21, 2024

The renewed fighting is the latest crisis to hit Rakhine which endured waves of communal violence in the years before the coup [AFP]

Young men trapped between war and conscription in Myanmar’s Rakhine

Since war resumed in his native Rakhine State last November, Thura Maung has seen his options narrow.

The 18-year-old, from the state’s ethnic Rakhine majority, first fled his home in the coastal town of Myebon in December, when clashes between the military and autonomy-seeking Arakha Army – formerly known as the Arakan Army – seemed imminent.

He and his family escaped by boat, travelling along river inlets at night to avoid being seen by the military. They returned a few days later, but fled twice more over the following months as the fighting escalated.

By February, the military and AA were battling for control over Myebon, and Thura Maung could hear shelling from the village where he had taken shelter. The military had also blocked the movement of goods and shut down the internet in areas affected by the conflict, leaving his family struggling to make ends meet.

With his university effectively closed due to the fighting, he felt his dreams slipping away. “There were no opportunities for my life to develop, and I saw no future,” he said.

It’s a feeling shared by Zubair, an ethnic Rohingya from Rakhine State’s northern Maungdaw township. The 24-year-old was doing an internship with a civil society organisation focused on peacebuilding when the fighting broke out and his office closed.

Soon, he was running from the war as well as a military conscription drive targeting Rohingya men. “We weren’t able to stay at home, go to work or even sleep on time,” he said. “Time that we could’ve spent working on our futures was wasted.”

Zubair and Thura Maung are part of a new generation of young people across Myanmar whose lives have been turned upside down by the 2021 military coup. In Rakhine State, people had already lived through years of communal conflict and a brutal 2017 military crackdown on the mostly Muslim Rohingya. The escalating violence between the military and AA has only made matters worse, according to Karen Simbulan, a human rights lawyer specialising in conflict sensitivity in Rakhine.

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“With the most recent renewed fighting and the looming threat of forced conscription, many who had persisted and stayed in Rakhine despite everything are seeing their futures taken away from them,” she said. “Many are taking significant risks to flee to safety, often putting themselves in highly vulnerable situations just to survive.”

Al Jazeera spoke with four young men from Rakhine State about the effects of the conflict on their lives. They have all been given pseudonyms to protect their safety.

‘Stirring up communal tensions’

The renewed fighting is the latest crisis to hit Rakhine State, home to Daingnet, Mro, Khami, Kaman, Maramagyi, Chin and Hindu minorities as well as the Rohingya, and the mostly Buddhist Rakhine majority. A category four cyclone hit the region last May, following successive waves of violence in the decade leading up to the coup.

In 2012, mobs of ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya people attacked each other with sticks and knives and burned each other’s homes, leaving dozens dead and some 140,000 forced from their homes. Afterwards, the military imposed tough restrictions on Rohingyas’ movement and access to services, while continuing to deny them citizenship under a discriminatory 1982 law.

The situation deteriorated dramatically in 2016 and 2017 when the military killed thousands of Rohingya civilians and committed widespread sexual violence and arson following attacks on military outposts by a Rohingya armed group. Its “clearance operations” in northern Rakhine State drove more than 750,000 people into neighbouring Bangladesh, and the crackdown is the subject of continuing genocide proceedings at the International Court of Justice.

The AA stepped up its fight for autonomy in late 2018; over the next two years, Rakhine State endured some of the most intense armed clashes seen in Myanmar in decades. The military also indiscriminately bombed and shelled civilian areas, committing what Amnesty International identified as war crimes.

The military and AA reached an informal ceasefire in November 2020, just three months before the generals seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Weeks later, the military cracked down on peaceful protests across Myanmar with gunfire and arrests. An armed uprising soon followed; by mid-2021, all-out war had erupted across the country.

Existing ethnic armed organisations trained and fought alongside anti-coup People’s Defence Forces (PDF), but the AA mostly stayed out of the fray, instead focusing on establishing governance mechanisms in its territory through its administrative wing, the United League of Arakan.

That changed last October, when the AA joined ethnic armed groups fighting on Myanmar’s eastern border with China to launch Operation 1027 declaring their intent to eradicate “oppressive military dictatorship”. Within weeks, they had seized strategic territory and other resistance groups were launching new offensives across the country. On November 13, the AA brought the war to Rakhine soil with coordinated attacks on military positions.

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The AA and its allies have since driven out the military from most of central and northern Rakhine State as well as Paletwa township in neighbouring Chin State. Following tactics it has long used to punish communities harbouring armed resistance, the military has retaliated with full-scale attacks on AA-controlled and contested areas by air, land and water while cutting off transit routes, communication channels and access to medical care for entire populations.

Hundreds of civilians have been injured or lost their lives and more than 185,000 people displaced across Rakhine State and Paletwa since November out of more than three million that the United Nations says have been displaced across the country, mostly as a result of the coup.

Through its forced conscription of Rohingya men as well as by demanding they protest against the AA, the military is also deliberately working to threaten years of fragile progress towards reconciliation between Rakhine and Rohingya communities, according to Simbulan, the conflict sensitivity specialist.

“The military is once again resorting to stirring up communal tensions because it is desperately losing ground in Rakhine,” she said. “As the expected de facto authority in Rakhine, the AA needs to heed its own words that this is a military tactic to divide communities, and not fall into the trap the military has set.”

Fear of conscription

Zubair, in Maungdaw, said that the conflict and military conscription drive left him feeling like the military was attempting to “destroy our Rohingya youth … from every angle”.

Since November, he has repeatedly been forced to flee his home due to the conflict. “Our village was attacked a lot, so we moved to another village which was less attacked,” he said. By February, he was also running from military conscription. Human Rights Watch reported in April that the military had used methods including false offers of citizenship, nighttime raids and abduction at gunpoint to conscript at least 1,000 Rohingya men, some of whom it sent to fight on the front lines against the AA.

In Maungdaw, Zubair said he had been unable to sleep since military soldiers took his neighbours from their home one night in March because he was fearful he might be next. The military was also blocking the roads between villages, leaving him and other young people with few places to go. “We ran inside the village,” said Zubair. “When we heard that [soldiers] were coming from one direction, we ran in another.”

Then, the military ordered the Maungdaw hospital to close, leaving Zubair’s father, who needs to use an inhaler because of a respiratory disease, unable to access medical care.

By April, heavy fighting between the military and AA had reached Rakhine State’s northern townships, alongside a series of devastating arson attacks across neighbouring Buthidaung township whose perpetrator remains disputed.

With a fight for control over Maungdaw looming, Zubair and his parents sneaked across the Naf river into Bangladesh one night at the end of May.

Now staying in the world’s largest refugee camp, Zubair rarely leaves his shelter, fearing that he could be robbed by other camp residents or arrested by Bangladeshi police, who sent back more than 300 people between February and April, according to the research and advocacy group Fortify Rights.

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“I need to be cautious every time I go outside,” he told Al Jazeera.

After escaping to nearby villages, Thura Maung, the Rakhine youth, also left the state due to the conflict. On February 9, he travelled by boat for two days to the state capital of Sittwe, and then boarded a plane bound for Myanmar’s largest city of Yangon.

He landed to find a city in chaos. While he was in transit, the military had announced plans to activate conscription from April, prompting a mass exodus from areas under its control. Thura Maung, who had planned to enrol in language classes in Yangon, could not find a course accepting new students and also feared conscription himself. So a week later, he began the trip back to Myebon, which had just been captured by the AA.

As soon as his flight touched down in Sittwe, however, he was arrested at the airport along with the other passengers on his flight. Held without charge at a Buddhist religious centre, military soldiers took his mugshot, interrogated him and searched through his phone.

He is among hundreds of people who have been detained by the military while travelling to or within Rakhine State since February. In March, the military also ordered travel agents and bus operators to stop issuing tickets to Rakhine State natives.

While these actions may have been intended to stop the flow of information and recruits to the AA, for Thura Maung, they had the opposite effect. Nearly a week after he was arrested, he sneaked away and headed towards an AA camp. “I felt lost,” he said. “I attempted to enter the AA without letting my parents know, because I thought it was the only certain thing I could do.”

A relative talked him out of it, however; now back in Myebon, where he is safe from military conscription because the AA controls the town, he still fears he could become the next victim of the military’s attacks. “I feel safer living in Myebon, but I still have to worry about air strikes,” he said.

‘Survival is my priority’

Tun Tun Win, a 24-year-old ethnic Rakhine, was also arrested at Sittwe airport. He had been attending language classes in Yangon when fighting broke out between the military and AA; although he had initially stayed in the city, he changed his plans in February. “Although there is ongoing conflict in Rakhine, I felt more secure living with my family than living alone in Yangon under the conscription law,” he said.

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Fleeing one danger, however, he was soon caught up in another. Like Thura Maung, soldiers took him away at the airport and interrogated him for several days at a Buddhist religious centre before he managed to sneak away. Now back home in Myebon, he faces a new set of struggles. “Currently, survival has become my priority rather than pursuing my ambition and plans,” he said.

Arkar Htet, a 27-year-old ethnic Rakhine from a village on the outskirts of Sittwe, also saw his plans fall apart after the conflict broke out. He was running an online delivery service and working as a dance instructor but stopped both after the military imposed a nighttime curfew and stepped up its surveillance and arrests. “I feared going outside even in the afternoon,” he said.

But even at home, he did not feel safe. As the military and AA battled for control over the town of Pauktaw, 30 kilometres (19 miles) northeast, military shells whizzed over his roof, as well as jet fighters on their way to bomb the town.

By January, the AA controlled Pauktaw, but the military had burned most of it down. As the fighting shifted to areas around Sittwe, Arkar Htet and his family fled by boat on February 29. Stray fire injured a passenger on the way; back in the city, about a dozen people died when shelling hit a portside market.

Arkar Htet and his family managed to reach a village under the AA’s control in Ponnagyun township, and in early April, he told Al Jazeera that he felt “70 percent safe”.

Less than two months later, on May 29 and 30, the military raided Byaing Phyu village, just a few kilometres from the village from which Arkar Htet had fled. According to the AA, military forces killed 72 civilians and raped three women; the military has denied the claims.

Then on June 1, the military bombed a village in Ponnagyun township next to the one where Arkar Htet had taken shelter, killing two civilians. Al Jazeera has been unable to get in touch with him since.

Young men trapped between war and conscription in Myanmar’s Rakhine

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

International

Just in: Senegal’s President Diomaye Faye Emerges New ECOWAS Chairman

Published

3 days ago

July 19, 2026

Trends Admin

Just in: Senegal’s President Diomaye Faye Emerges New ECOWAS Chairman

Senegal’s President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has been elected as the new Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), taking over the leadership of the 15-member regional bloc at a critical period marked by rising insecurity, political instability and efforts to strengthen regional integration.

Faye emerged as the new chairman on Sunday during the 69th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government held in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where regional leaders deliberated on pressing political, economic and security issues confronting West Africa.

The Senegalese leader succeeds Sierra Leone’s President, Julius Maada Bio, who assumed the rotating chairmanship in June 2025 after taking over from Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu.

Faye’s election places him at the helm of ECOWAS at a time the regional body is battling terrorism, violent extremism, unconstitutional changes of government and the diplomatic fallout from the withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger from the bloc.

Restoring regional cohesion and advancing economic integration are expected to rank high on his agenda.

The 46-year-old Senegalese president, who came to office in April 2024 on a reformist platform promising transparency, anti-corruption measures and stronger African cooperation, is widely regarded as one of the new generation of leaders shaping the continent’s political landscape.

Established in 1975, ECOWAS remains the principal regional organisation promoting economic integration, free movement, peace, security and democratic governance across West Africa.

The Authority of Heads of State and Government is the bloc’s highest decision-making body, with its chairmanship rotating among member states.

International

New York Mayor Says He Is Exploring Possible Arrest of Netanyahu During UN Visit

Published

3 days ago

July 19, 2026

Trends Admin

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

New York Mayor Says He Is Exploring Possible Arrest of Netanyahu During UN Visit

Zohran Mamdani calls Israeli PM a “war criminal” and says his legal department is actively reviewing whether city authorities can enforce an ICC warrant, as US envoy dismisses the threat as “pure political theater”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said his administration is actively examining whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be arrested if he visits the city for the United Nations General Assembly in September. Speaking on The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast, Mamdani said the city’s legal department is assessing the matter, which aligns with a campaign pledge he made during the mayoral race. “I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani said. “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court. And what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years.”

When asked about the legal authority available to his office, Mamdani said the issue remains under active review. “That’s an active conversation with our legal department. However, what we’ve seen at the national level is a desire sometimes to write your own laws, to go outside of the bounds of legality. That’s not something we have an interest in.” The mayor clarified that he would act only within the bounds of existing law. “Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do, but we won’t be writing our own laws to that end.” The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war in Gaza, following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. Both President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden criticised the court’s decision.

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Any attempt by New York authorities to enforce the warrant would face major legal obstacles. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC and requires member states to execute the court’s arrest warrants. Former prosecutors have warned that any attempt by Mamdani or New York police officials to arrest Netanyahu based on an ICC warrant would violate US federal law and could expose them to federal conspiracy charges. US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz dismissed the mayor’s comments on Saturday, describing them as “pure political theater.” In a social media post, Waltz outlined four reasons why the arrest “is not going to happen”: the US is not party to the Rome Statute; the UN Headquarters Agreement grants diplomatic protections to visiting heads of government; head-of-state immunity applies; and federal authority trumps any local mayor’s wishes. The Trump administration has escalated its long-running battle against the ICC, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently pledging to “dismantle” the court and accusing it of “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles” but with “the force of so-called international law.”

Netanyahu dismissed the concerns during an interview earlier in the week with WABC radio host Sid Rosenberg, accusing Mamdani of supporting Hamas and suggesting the mayor “secretly hates America.” Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said on social media on Saturday that Netanyahu “will come to New York, address the United Nations General Assembly with pride, and stand before the world to state Israel’s truth and its unwavering right to defend its citizens.” Danon also accused Mamdani of failing to confront the “rising wave of antisemitism” in New York City and suggested that “if anyone should be arrested, it is Mayor Zohran Mamdani.”

New York Mayor Says He Is Exploring Possible Arrest of Netanyahu During UN Visit

International

Two US Soldiers Killed, One Missing in Iranian Strike on Jordan as Ceasefire Collapses

Published

3 days ago

July 19, 2026

Trends Admin

Two US Soldiers Killed, One Missing in Iranian Strike on Jordan as Ceasefire Collapses

CENTCOM confirms first American combat deaths since March; Trump orders eighth consecutive night of airstrikes as regional conflict widens to Gulf allies

Two United States soldiers have been killed and a third remains missing in action following Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks on US forces in Jordan on Friday, marking the first American combat deaths in the Iran conflict since March. The attack, which targeted Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq, Jordan, confirms the collapse of a fragile ceasefire signed just one month ago and signals a dangerous escalation as both nations broaden their targets across the Middle East.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed the fatalities in an official statement, reporting that two service members were killed in action while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks on July 17. One additional service member is currently listed as missing in action. Four American service members were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals and have since been discharged, while others who sustained minor injuries have returned to duty. CENTCOM stated it will withhold the identities of the fallen soldiers until 24 hours after their next of kin are notified. The deaths bring the total number of US service members killed since the conflict began nearly five months ago to 16, with more than 420 wounded. The previous confirmed US combat fatalities occurred on March 1, when six Army Reserve soldiers died after an Iranian strike hit a temporary operations centre at Kuwait’s Shuaiba port. An Army sergeant died days later from injuries sustained in an attack in Saudi Arabia. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged the news in a post on X, writing: “Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”

In response to the Jordan attack, President Donald Trump directed the US military to carry out another round of airstrikes against Iran on Saturday night, marking the eighth consecutive night of US bombing. CENTCOM said the strikes targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces responsible for the Jordan attacks, hitting coastal surveillance facilities, air defense sites, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage locations. Iranian state media reported that the latest US strikes killed at least three people and wounded eight others in Hormozgan province, while damaging two bridges and a road tunnel. According to Iran’s Health Ministry, at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 injured in US strikes since the latest phase of the conflict began on June 27.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the attack on the Al-Azraq base, stating it had “completely destroyed” at least two US fighter jets and severely damaged several others. While CENTCOM has not confirmed these claims, satellite images published by Iranian media showed significant destruction at King Faisal Air Base in Jordan, with multiple structures destroyed. Jordan’s military confirmed it intercepted ten Iranian missiles fired into its airspace overnight, with no damage reported from intercepted projectiles. However, the attack marks Jordan’s growing exposure in the conflict, as the Pentagon had relocated troops there from Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE in search of greater security, regarding the kingdom as a comparatively safe rear position. The IRGC has broadened its targeting beyond Jordan, striking US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. In Kuwait, Iranian attacks damaged a power generation and desalination plant, while Kuwait Petroleum Corporation confirmed one of its oil facilities had been hit, causing significant damage and some injuries. Iran also claimed to have targeted radar facilities and drone hangars at Camp Arifjan and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. Saudi Arabia’s early warning system issued alerts urging residents of Al-Kharj and Yanbu to seek shelter, with two sources confirming an Iranian missile attack triggered the alerts.

The attack confirms the collapse of a memorandum of understanding signed in mid-June, which was intended to hold for 60 days while negotiators addressed Iran’s nuclear programme and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The dispute centred on control of the waterway, which previously carried a fifth of global energy exports. Under the agreement, the strait was to reopen, but Iran demanded the right to manage traffic and charge vessels a service fee. When commercial ships instead used an alternative route protected by the US Navy, Iran struck a cargo vessel on June 25, prompting US strikes and a rapid escalation. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Khazem Gharibabadi, said Tehran has suspended its commitments under the deal, stating: “We were in negotiations. Unfortunately, it was the Americans themselves who, in fact, took these aggressive actions, in violation of their own commitments.” Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei derided President Trump’s signature as “worthless and invalid,” accusing Washington of repeatedly violating the agreement.

A central concern within the US military is Iran’s deliberate strategy of attrition. Iran is drawing on a large stockpile of low-cost drones and missiles to exhaust American air defences, with each Patriot interceptor fired to bring down a comparatively cheap Iranian drone depleting supplies that take years to replace. Officials note Iranian forces are growing more effective at exploiting American defences. The conflict also carries substantial political risk for the Trump administration, with midterm elections less than four months away.