A/HRC/60/20 39. In an incident in Htan Shauk Khan village, Buthidaung Township, Rakhine State, on 2 May 2024, in which hundreds of civilian casualties were reported, multiple sources alleged that over 1,000 Rohingya villagers had fled in fear of possible clashes. Witnesses described having been stopped by Arakan Army elements, divided into three groups in paddy fields and fired upon, with the death of scores. One interviewee depicted the scene as “a river of blood. … I saw shooting. I saw mass killing. It was a lot of guns, people were shot in the legs and chest”. Another survivor recounted the killing of 20 relatives, including 3 children. 40. The situation deteriorated further with the Arakan Army’s offensive to capture Buthidaung town on 17 May 2024 and Maungdaw town in mid-June 2024. In early May, tens of thousands of Rohingya took refuge in Buthidaung town, including in a school downtown reportedly sheltering over 10,000 civilians. On 6 May, artillery shelling reportedly carried out by the Arakan Army hit the school, killing 4 and wounding 15 others. Another attack struck the school on 17 May 2024, after the Arakan Army had captured the town and Rohingya areas, including in Wards 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, were torched. Interviewees described the burnings of people locked inside houses, summary executions, the targeting of fleeing civilians and disappearances. Rohingya from or displaced to Buthidaung tried to flee towards Maungdaw, but the Arakan Army prevented them from travelling farther. Victims described spending the night along the road with, reportedly, tens of thousands of people. Describing the fear and chaos of the situation, one interviewee stated: “Everyone was crying – father cannot find son, son cannot find father, husband and wife separated, children cannot find their parents. People were crying for the whole night.” In the morning, the Arakan Army forced displaced Rohingya to travel to villages under their control, with accounts of civilians walking all day in searing heat carrying small children and through villages razed to the ground. OHCHR documented killings, arrests, beatings, disappearances, extortion and looting as regular occurrences during that period. 41. In the weeks following the burning of the Rohingya areas of Buthidaung, clashes intensified in Maungdaw Township, killing numerous Rohingya. On 10 June 2024, in Pan Taw Pyin village, an attack by a military helicopter killed at least eight Rohingya, while in Thi Ho Kyun village, a drone attack – that interviewees attributed to the Arakan Army – killed six. Local sources reported that the military had taken up positions in civilian homes, schools, mosques and madrasas and that the subsequent clashes had resulted in numerous Rohingya deaths and property damage. Using drones, the Arakan Army had reportedly killed dozens of Rohingya who had not left their villages. In the morning of 13 July 2024, in Habi Anarwa village, the military carried out an air strike on a Rohingya house, killing eight, including two women and two children. Clashes continued in the surrounding cluster of villages until 24 July 2024, endangering the civilian population, causing a reportedly high number of casualties and extensive destruction and prompting civilians to flee. 42. Such escalation culminated in the reported killing of several hundred Rohingya in Maungdaw at the beginning of August 2024. On 4 August, in Maung Ni ward in southern Maungdaw town, the Arakan Army took over positions abandoned by the military and started killing and wounding scores of civilians through executions and artillery fire. Interviewees stated that, in one incident in Maung Ni village, Arakan Army elements had entered the house of an imam, where eight families, up to 36 people, including 10 women and 18 children, were sheltering. The 36 individuals have not been seen since and their fates are unknown. 43. Multiple sources provided consistent testimony of the events of 5 August 2024 in Maungdaw town, when thousands of Rohingya gathered along the Naf riverbank to the west of the town, hoping to flee the fighting by crossing into Bangladesh. Drone and artillery strikes starting in the late afternoon had resulted in the deaths of possibly hundreds of Rohingya civilians. As one interviewee explained: “those on the way, they were stuck. Those in the village were stuck. And those on the riverbank were also stuck. There were 10,000 to 12,000 people on the riverbank at that time. Many died there. From the place where we were hiding, we could see dead bodies everywhere.” One survivor stated that the boat in which they had been travelling towards Bangladesh had come under drone attack. Forty-six civilians, including three children, had been killed. While the Arakan Army blamed 9