Kill Them All:The Htan Shauk Khan massacre and sexual violence by the Arakan Army in Buthidaung township
26 September 2025
This report provides evidence that the Arakan Army (AA) deliberately massacred hundreds of Rohingya residents of Htan Shauk Khan village (“Hoyya Siri” in Rohingya) in central Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine State, on May 2nd, 2024. Evidence is also provided that AA troops raped and killed women fleeing from Htan Shauk Khan, raped women returning to the village, and kept women as sex slaves in a nearby military base.
The report is based on interviews with nineteen Rohingya refugees from Buthidaung: eleven men and seven women. Eight were from Htan Shauk Khan village, two of whom lost over 60 relatives in the massacre on May 2nd. The interviews were carried out by Razia Sultana, a lawyer and human rights activist of Rohingya origin.
Villagers described how early in the morning of May 2nd, a large group of Myanmar Army troops appeared from the north, half of whom entered Htan Shauk village and half of whom entered the military junta’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 551 base east of the village. They warned villagers to leave their homes as fighting would break out. Hundreds of villagers began fleeing north out of the village.
Soon afterwards, hundreds of AA troops entered the village and also ordered villagers out of their homes. Villagers fled in different directions. One large group was blocked by AA troops at the main road east of the village, who persuaded the villagers to hand over two armed Myanmar Army soldiers among them.
This group of villagers were ordered to sit down in rows, with their heads bowed. They then heard an order given over a walkie-talkie used by an AA soldier: “Ah-lone that pit laik!” (Kill them all!). After that, the AA troops opened fire on the villagers seated in front of them. A 19-year-old 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.Meanwhile, hundreds of villagers heading north were blocked by AA troops on the road, and were similarly shot at by AA troops. Villagers fleeing across paddy fields west of the village were also 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.
Villagers also revealed that twelve young women trying to flee were detained by AA troops, and kept as sex slaves in the LIB 551 camp seized from the junta. Four have since died. Most of the villagers able to escape fled to U Hla Pe village, two kilometers west of Htan Shauk Khan. There they were detained by AA, their mobile phones checked and seized, and young men who had formerly been recruited as soldiers by the junta were taken away and never seen again.
Two days after the May 2nd massacre, a farmer was ordered by AA with fifty other villagers from U Hla Pe to return to Htan Shauk Khan and gather hay to burn the bodies. He 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. Refugees fleeing to Bangladesh all had to obtain written permission from AA to travel out of Buthidaung. A religious teacher had to pay 275,000 Bangladesh taka (about 2,250 US dollars) for permission for his family to leave. He was also forced by the AA to hand over all his personal documents before leaving, including his household list and his land tax payment form – in other words, all concrete records of links to his home in Buthidaung.
Despite the AA’s claims to media that the bodies found in Htan Shauk Khan were only those of Myanmar Army soldiers, evidence in this report shows that hundreds of Rohingya civilians were massacred by AA troops with direct orders from their superiors. Evidence also shows that AA troops have carried out systematic sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls.
The AA must take responsibility for the crimes committed by its troops. Commanders and fighters involved in killings, rape, and arbitrary detention must be held to account. All Rohingya civilians detained must be released, sexual slavery must end, and communities must be protected from further harm.If the AA truly claims to stand for justice, it must prove it by enforcing accountability within its ranks and allowing independent monitoring to prevent future crimes.
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