Nine years on, a Rohingya survivor revisits the massacre that killed her family

 COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh

The rain on the plastic roof of the shelter in Bangladesh’s Kutupalong refugee camp takes Laila Begum back to the gloomy morning of 30 August 2017, the day her family went from nine to three people.

Then 18, Laila recounts what happened when the Myanmar military, accompanied by armed Rakhine villagers, surrounded her village of Tula Toli in northern Rakhine State and began shooting indiscriminately at Rohingya Muslims.

By the end of that morning, her parents and four of her six siblings were dead.

Now 27 and living with her husband and three children in the world’s largest refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar, Laila says she wants to retell her story not only to highlight the Myanmar military’s continued impunity following its genocidal campaign – which killed thousands of Rohingya and drove more than 740,000 from their homes – but also to reaffirm her desire to return to her home country.

Over the last nine years, the harrowing experience of seeing her parents, siblings, and fellow Rohingya brutally killed has never left her.

Click here to read more: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2026/08/27/nine-years-rohingya-survivor-revisits-massacre-killed-her-family-dreams-return-home