Hundreds of Rohingya people have fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine State into Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, amid the escalation of fighting between Myanmar’s ruling military junta and the opposition militia Arakan Army. Both groups have targeted the Rohingya, a minority ethnic group residing primarily in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, that has faced decades of persecution and ethnic cleansing campaigns.

In early August, hundreds of people were killed in a drone attack while fleeing violence. Witnesses told CNN that the drone strikes hit civilians fleeing villages in Maungdaw waiting to cross the river to Bangladesh, where close to a million Rohingya people live in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

The junta and the Arakan Army both blamed one another for the drone attack. Unverified reports put the death toll at about 200, which would make it one of the deadliest attacks against civilians in Myanmar since the civil war began in 2021. Medical charity Medicines Sans Frontière, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said that it had treated 39 people for injuries related to the current violence. Orla Murphy, the group’s Bangladesh representative, told Reuters, “We were seeing lots of gunshots, shrapnel, mortar shell injuries, all indicative of indiscriminate [attacks].”

In 2017, a campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Rohingya people led by the Myanmar military forced more than 750,000 people to flee from Rakhine State to Bangladesh. Today, around 630,000 Rohingya people continue to be vulnerable to violence and live under an apartheid system in Myanmar.

In February 2021, the Myanmar military took over the country’s government in a coup and has since been in conflict with the Arakan Army. Fighting between the two groups has since intensified and spread across Rakhine State, with Rohingya communities often being the target of attacks. The junta has blocked humanitarian aid to the region, imposed movement restrictions, cut internet access, and forced Rohingya men and boys into joining the military.

On May 17, the Arakan Army shelled, looted, and burned Rohingya villages in Buthidaung township, forcing thousands to flee. On July 3, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar warned the U.N. Human Rights Council (U.N.H.R.C.) that “for Rohingya people – oppressed, scapegoated, exploited, and stuck between warring parties – the situation carries echoes of the lead-up to genocidal violence in 2016 and 2017.” One week later, the U.N.H.R.C. adopted a resolution that condemned the Buthidaung township attack and the “continuous targeting of Rohingya Muslims,” and urged “all parties to the conflict to fully comply with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice [I.C.J.].” The provisional measures, imposed by the I.C.J. in January 2020, ordered Myanmar to prevent all genocidal acts against the Rohingya.

In Bangladesh, the constant influx of Rohingya refugees since 2017 has stretched resources, creating a high risk of hunger. The International Rescue Committee reported on August 23 that food insecurity in Cox’s Bazar has reached crisis levels. Mohammad Touhid Hossain, Bangladesh’s de-facto foreign minister, told Reuters on August 15, “Bangladesh is in no position to accept more Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.” Despite strained resources, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, a refugee relief official based in Cox’s Bazar, continues to aid incoming Rohingya. Rahman told Reuters, “When someone arrives with a bullet injury, fighting for life, or a pregnant woman arrives fighting for life, we are not that inhuman that we will turn them away.” Hossain called for more pressure on the Arakan Army to end their attacks, and for neighboring countries such as India to do more.

As attacks against the Rohingya people continue and the refugee crisis worsens, it is essential that the international community takes action in order to prevent further violence and ensure that Myanmar meets the provisional measures imposed by the International Court of Justice. Humanitarian agencies and activities must be able to provide aid in Myanmar unobstructed, and violence against the Rohingya people must end.