Rakhine families settle on displaced Rohingya land in Burma

 NAYPYIDAW, Burma (MNTV) — Rakhine families are being settled on land where Rohingya communities lived before their mass displacement, according to local residents, raising fears that the redistribution of villages and farmland could make the eventual return of displaced Rohingya increasingly difficult.

According to the Rohingya Khobor,  construction has recently begun in Bagone Nar in southern Maungdaw Township, where a Rohingya village was burned during the Burmese military’s brutal 2017 crackdown that drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh.

Residents said the former village market had been bulldozed and houses were being constructed on surrounding land under the administration of the United League of Arakan and its armed wing, the Arakan Army, or AA, which now controls most of Rakhine State.

Some of the Rakhine families reportedly being brought into the area are from Rathedaung Township and southern parts of the state. Residents said families were being allocated residential plots and, in some cases, about two acres of farmland previously owned or cultivated by Rohingya.

The allegations come amid wider reports of Rohingya land being seized or repurposed in areas under AA control.

The Burma Human Rights Network reported in June that Rakhine settlements were being established on confiscated Rohingya land in northern Maungdaw, with some Rohingya allegedly forced to help construct them. 

A recent United Nations human rights report has also documented allegations of Rohingya land seizures and restrictions preventing displaced residents from returning home.

Similar concerns have emerged in neighboring Buthidaung Township, where Rohingya residents said some families displaced by fighting have been prevented from returning to their original villages and instead relocated to designated settlements.

Residents said families were given small plots but largely left to construct their own shelters despite widespread poverty and restrictions on obtaining bamboo and timber. Some said they feared arrest if they refused to relocate.

Local residents also identified Maung Gyi Taung, Tat Min Chaung and Kyein Chaung, locally known as Thami Khali, as areas where Rakhine settlement or redistribution of Rohingya land was reportedly taking place. The specific claims could not be independently verified.

The dispute carries potentially far-reaching consequences for Rohingya refugees and internally displaced people.

More than a million Rohingya currently live in neighboring Bangladesh, including hundreds of thousands driven from Burma during the military crackdown in 2017. Renewed warfare since 2024 has displaced many more Rohingya inside Rakhine State and across the border.

Rohingya groups have long demanded restoration of their homes and property as a central condition for any future return.

If their former villages are occupied and agricultural land permanently redistributed while they remain displaced, returning to their places of origin could become increasingly difficult even if security conditions eventually allow repatriation.

“We lost our homes first. Now we are losing our farmland as well,” one Rohingya farmer said. “If this continues, our children may have nowhere to return to.”