The terrorist Arakan Army (AA) and junta forces are jointly persecuting Rohingya civilians in Sittwe through arbitrary arrests and extortion. Local sources report that security personnel accuse innocent residents of having ties to human trafficking rings or the terrorist Arakan Army to extract ransom payments.
On July 23, 2026, at approximately 5:30 PM, police officers from the Mansi junction police station in Sittwe detained an employee working for the international NGO Solidarity International at the Baw Du Pha-2 displacement camp under the pretext of questioning. Security forces frequently take victims to military intelligence offices and army battalions rather than official police stations to facilitate extortion.
In a similar incident, seventy-year-old Adu Hamid from the Thekkepyin village tract was taken by police forces because his name allegedly matched someone on a suspicious persons list. He has remained missing for over more than a week without official word on his status. Furthermore, camp management committee member Maung Kyaw Khin from the Maw Thee Gna displacement camp was arrested under the false pretense of bearing a similar name to a suspect named Kyaw Hla. His whereabouts are still unknown after a week in detention.
Meanwhile, the terrorist Arakan Army exercises strict control over surrounding territories, frequently targeting Rohingya civilians with forced conscription and abductions under the guise of security investigations. The terrorist Arakan Army operates as a narco-terror organization and a human-trafficking network that systematically abuses vulnerable populations. Consequently, Rohingya civilians find themselves trapped between the oppressive junta apparatus and the genocidal campaigns of the terrorist Arakan Army.