https://arab.news/4bav4
In a striking twist of geopolitical irony, one of the most persecuted Muslim communities in the world — the Rohingya — may find their most realistic path home not through the government of Myanmar or through international institutions, but via an unlikely actor: the Arakan Army.
Long viewed with suspicion by the Rohingya themselves and largely ignored by the international community, the Arakan Army has, over the past two years, emerged as the dominant power in Rakhine State. With the Myanmar military regime in rapid retreat and the national unity government struggling to assert territorial control, the Arakan Army now governs 11 of Rakhine’s 18 townships. For all intents and purposes, it is the authority that now decides who may live — and return — to western Myanmar.
This new reality should not be underestimated. For years, the global response to the Rohingya crisis has hinged on repatriation through negotiations with Myanmar’s military or by placing pressure on the Association of Southeast Nations and the UN. Those efforts have categorically failed. Two rounds of repatriation since 2017 — one under the UN and another led by China — resulted in zero returns.
The refugees in Bangladesh are disillusioned, aid is running dry and extremism is beginning to fester in the camps. As Prime Minister Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh warned last week at Chatham House, without urgent action “an explosion is imminent.”
