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ARSA Terrorists Act in Step with Myanmar Junta’s Ground and Air Attacks: Did “Genocide” Actually Happen?
Opinion, October 6, 2026
In recent days, a local news agency reported an interview about the Myanmar military’s transfer of around 800 weapons into the hands of ARSA during 2024. The interviewee said that he personally witnessed the transfer. He also said that the Myanmar military instructed ARSA and other Muslim militants to occupy northern Arakan by exterminating non-Muslim groups, including Rakhine, Hindu and other communities. The interviewee himself is a Hindu man, and Muslim militants told him that they had come from Bangladesh to kill Buddhists and Hindus. This is one of the key pieces of evidence revealing the Myanmar junta’s connection and cooperation with ARSA.
The events of 2024 have often been forgotten since the AA established full control over the 271-kilometre border with Bangladesh. The threats from various Muslim militant groups, including ARSA, RSO, ARA and RIM, have also been contained to a large extent.
However, the links and connections between the Myanmar military and these groups have never been completely cut off. In particular, the junta navy at the mouth of the Naf River has maintained relations with these groups, while the Bangladeshi navy has seemingly turned a blind eye to their activities.
These groups are involved in arms, drug and human trafficking, while Myanmar military personnel and soldiers provide them with weapons, intelligence and technical know-how to carry out attacks against the AA. Now, as the junta increases its ground and air offensives, ARSA has also begun penetrating and attacking AA positions along the Bangladesh border. These attacks appear to be intended to create the impression that the AA is being overwhelmed and is facing pressure from multiple directions.
What is more interesting is why the Myanmar military and ARSA, once mortal enemies during the Myanmar military campaign against Muslim communities in 2017, have now joined hands to attack the AA.
The answer is not difficult to understand. Their cooperation is driven by military and political interests. The junta wants to create pressure on the AA from multiple directions, while ARSA wants to take advantage of the ongoing conflict between the junta and the AA to regain space and influence in northern Arakan.
But the implications are far from positive. This cooperation can create serious communal tensions among the different communities in Arakan. It could also increase anti-Muslim sentiment across Myanmar because ARSA is now collaborating with the junta, which remains strongly opposed by the majority of the country’s population. Such developments will further deepen mistrust between communities and make reconciliation more difficult.
This will also create more barriers to a peaceful and sustainable resolution of the refugee question along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Therefore, the international community, including Bangladesh, should address a critical question: Why is ARSA receiving arms and support from the Myanmar junta through or around Bangladeshi territory?
This is not simply a security issue. It directly affects the future stability of northern Arakan and the possibility of resolving the refugee crisis. If armed groups continue to receive weapons, intelligence and other forms of support, the prospects for stability and voluntary, safe and sustainable refugee return will become even more difficult.
Whether ARSA truly represents the wider Muslim community is a separate question. ARSA is an armed organization, and its actions should not automatically be considered the actions of an entire religious or ethnic community. However, the current situation raises another difficult question. Muslim diaspora leaders have not openly criticized ARSA’s actions. Their silence can therefore be interpreted as silent support for the group.
The contradiction is difficult to ignore. The Myanmar military and ARSA were once mortal enemies. The 2017 military campaign created one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the region, with the Myanmar military becoming the main force responsible for attacks against Muslim communities. Yet today, the same military and ARSA are joining hands against the AA.
If former enemies can now cooperate for military and political interests, then the history and narratives surrounding the 2017 events deserve much deeper examination.
So, the question remains: Did “genocide” actually happen, and how should the international community understand a situation in which former perpetrators and victims are now cooperating on the same side of a new conflict?
These are uncomfortable questions, but they cannot simply be ignored. The changing relationship between the Myanmar junta and ARSA must be examined carefully because it is now shaping the security, communal relations and political future of Arakan.
