“They are annihilating the Rohingya race. If we can gather evidence of these killings, along with the exact locations, we can show the world what is happening,” said an unnamed citizen journalist who captured rare footage from the civil war in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Using leaked documents, exclusive video and forensic analysis, Al Jazeera’s documentary “Bloodshed on the Border” investigates how Rohingya are massacred, trafficked and purged from war-torn Myanmar.

Caught in the crossfire between the ruling junta and a powerful local rebel group called the Arakan Army who control most of that region, more than 150,000 refugees from this Muslim minority have sought asylum in Bangladesh and other neighbouring nations.   

The Al Jazeera Investigates team reveals how ethnic Rohingya have been targeted by both sides in a conflict where they have been used, abused, exploited for profit and driven from their homes in Rakhine State, a closed off region of Myanmar where aid workers and journalists have had little access since the civil war escalated in 2023. 

In this landmark documentary, some Rohingya eyewitnesses to atrocities in Rakhine State allege that the violence and oppression they face from both sides during the current civil war is just as brutal as the ethnic cleansing by the military in 2017 that first drew global attention to their plight.

“Initially, the Arakan Army entered my village, took position in my village, they built trenches around my village, built a check point. It wasn’t the military who sought shelter there. It was these rebels who sought shelter and initiated the conflict. Some people’s children, brothers’ relatives were killed, others lost their legs, hands. Many disappeared, many were killed on the road and it was a bloodbath,” said Seterra Begum, a refugee in Bangladesh’s refugee camps. 

With in-depth research and investigation backed by exclusive material from Rohingya citizen journalists and analysis from forensic investigators at Myanmar Witness, Al Jazeera Investigates reveals what happened to this Muslim minority when the Arakan Army took over Rakhine State.

The documentary also exposes how rebel groups are profiting from the human trafficking of Rohingya. It investigates allegations that children are being forced onto boats, taken out of Myanmar and sent to other countries, while women are exploited and subjected to sexual violence.

“We were being boarded onto the boat by them, they kept us in the boat’s hold, and above our heads, they covered it with big pieces of wood. Under there were a lot of children, there were a lot of single young children. If we looked up or stood up, we were beaten,” said Ayes, a 14 year old Rohingya asylum seeker.

The Arakan Army declined to provide written answers or be interviewed by Al Jazeera regarding issues raised in the documentary. However their leaders have previously denied accusations of targeted attacks on civilians across Rakhine State including two mass killings of Rohingya villagers. In a written statement, Myanmar’s military alleged that the Arakan Army is inciting hatred against the Rohingya Muslims and has “reportedly committed acts of genocide” against them since taking control of much of the state.  They also claimed their soldiers protect Rohingya populations during the civil war but did not address other accusations made against them in the film.

In Bangladesh, 1.2 million Rohingya now struggle to survive in some of the largest refugee camps in the world. Despite the conflict, senior officials say they want to send the refugees back to Myanmar, citing concerns about insurgency and transnational crime in this increasingly unstable corner of Asia.

“When you have young boys in their twenties with no light at the end of the tunnel, don’t ever expect that they will just sit quiet and do nothing,” said Mohammad Touhid Hossain, who served as a foreign advisor in Bangladesh’s then-transitional government.

Al Jazeera investigates the driving forces behind this largely forgotten crisis.

This story is part of “Myanmar Exposed,” a series of reports by Al Jazeera Investigates which uncover the hidden truths of the ongoing crisis sparked by the 2021 coup and civil conflict.

MYANMAR: BLOODSHED ON THE BORDER

Watch on Al Jazeera English at these times:

Thursday 27th August        1900gmt          
Friday 28th August              0900gmt          
Saturday 29th August         0400gmt             

And on YouTube: Watch