Kill them all: new report exposes Arakan Army orders of mass killing in Buthidaung

Press Release

Date: September 24, 2025

Kill them all: new report exposes Arakan Army orders of mass killing in Buthidaung

A new report by Kaladan Press Network provides evidence that the massacre by Arakan Army (AA) troops of hundreds of Rohingya residents of Htan Shauk Khan village in Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine State, on May 2^nd, 2024, was carried out with official orders.

Evidence is also provided that AA troops raped and killed women fleeing from Htan Shauk Khan and kept women as sex slaves in a nearby military base.

The report, based on testimonies of nineteen Rohingya refugees, provides a timeline of the events on May 2^nd, showing how Htan Shauk Khan villagers fleeing imminent fighting between Myanmar Army and AA troops, were blocked on all sides by the AA, who then opened fire on them.

Villagers described being forced to sit down in rows, with their heads bowed, then hearing an order given over a walkie-talkie: “Ah-lone that pit laik!” (Kill them all!), after which the AA troops opened fire.

One teenage villager saw his mother, father and five younger siblings being shot in front of him. He was only able to survive by covering himself with his mother’s bloody scarf and pretending to be dead when AA troops searched through the bodies and shot those still alive.

Villagers trying to flee across paddy fields were chased and shot at by AA troops. They saw most of the houses in Htan Shauk Khan being set alight as they fled.

Some young women were caught by AA troops, dragged into tall grass and raped, then killed. The body of one woman was later found half naked with a knife wound from her crotch to her stomach. The beheaded bodies of her two young children were beside her.

Two days after the massacre, the AA ordered some neighbouring villagers to go to Htan Shauk Khan and gather hay to burn the bodies. One of these villagers described seeing four piles of bodies, under tarpaulin, on the northeast edge of the village. He said the stench of the bodies was overpowering.

Other villagers who sneaked back to the village at night in the weeks after the massacre. said they saw other bodies around the village, including one pile behind a mosque, and many in a pond south of the village.

Villagers also revealed that twelve young women who had tried to flee from Htan Shauk Khan on May 2^nd had been detained by AA troops and kept as sex slaves in the nearby Light Infantry Battalion 551 camp seized from the junta.

The report demands that the AA take responsibility for the crimes committed by its troops, and calls for commanders and fighters involved in killings, rape, and arbitrary detention to be held to account.

The report urges the AA to release all Rohingya civilians detained, to end sexual slavery, and to protect communities from further harm.

“If the Arakan Army truly claims to stand for justice, it must prove it by enforcing accountability within its ranks and allowing independent monitoring to prevent future crimes,” said lawyer and human rights activist Razia Sultana, the main researcher for the report.

📖 Read the full report here:  KILL THEM ALL

📞 Media contact:
Tin Soe: +880 171 438 1110 (Signal/WhatsApp)
Razia Sultana: +880 181 846 6078 (Signal/WhatsApp)