According to a December 2016 report by the International Crisis Group, it is led by Ataullah abu Ammar Jununi, a Rohingya man who was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and grew up in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

[23] ARSA subsequently released a statement on 28 August 2017, calling government allegations against it as "baseless" and claiming that its main purpose is to defend the rights of Rohingyas.

Ataullah had approached villagers, asking for five to ten recruits to join his group and telling them that the time had come to "stop the mistreatment of the Rohingya people".

[35] The Myanmar Army also blamed ARSA for the killings of 99 Bengali Hindus in the Kha Maung Seik massacre, which occurred on the same day as the attacks.

[38][39][40] On 24 September 2017, Myanmar's military accused ARSA of killing 28 Hindus in Ye Baw Kya village in the previous month after they uncovered their bodies in a mass grave.

[43] A one-month unilateral ceasefire was declared by ARSA on 9 September 2017, in an attempt to allow aid groups and humanitarian workers safe access into northern Rakhine State.

[44][45][46] In a statement, the group urged the government to lay down their arms and agree to their ceasefire, which would have been in effect from 10 September until 9 October (the one-year anniversary of the first attacks on Burmese security forces by ARSA).

[50] On 9 November 2017, Myint Khyine, the Burmese secretary of the Immigration and Population Department, blamed the deaths of 18 village leaders in the last three months on ARSA in Muslim-majority Maungdaw and Buthidaung.

[52] Bangladesh's Minister of Road Transport and Bridges, Obaidul Quader, stated during a reception organised by the nation's deputy high commission in Kolkata, India that his country was investigating the allegations.

[54] ARSA claimed responsibility for an ambush carried out on 5 January 2018 in the village of Turaing,[55][56] which reportedly injured six members of Myanmar's security forces and a civilian driver.

[60] On the 16 January, Myanmar state media reported that six police officers had been injured in an ambush by ten ARSA insurgents in Watkyein village bridge in Maungdaw.

[61] In March, ARSA's leadership called for their followers to protect Rohingya community from insurgent group in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

According to military spokesman and Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, the clash occurred during routine border security at Mee Dike village and began when around 30 ARSA insurgents opened fire.

[68] Some Rohingyas told Reuters that ARSA and other armed gangs enforced their rules at night in refugee camps, abducting their critics and instructing women to abide by conservative Islamic norms.

[66] An attack on the Darul Ulum Nadwatul Ulama Al-Islamia Madrasa in the Moinarghona camp-18, located in Ukhiya, resulted in deaths of six refugees and injuries to eight others on 22 October.

[69] Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, stated on 19 December that he had received credible reports of ARSA killing, torturing, abducting and intimidating Rohingya refugees in camps.

[70] The group started reemerging in the Maungdaw region around November 2021, after allying with the National Unity Government formed in opposition to the military junta that took power after the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.

[72] Several images and videos appeared on social media in early-January 2022, purportedly showing more than 50 members of the group along with its leaders taking part in a military drill in Maungdaw.

[71] Bangladesh Police on 18 July 2022 announced arrests of Nur Mohammad, chairman of ARSA's fatwa committee, and Abu Bakkar, a commander of the group accused of the killings of Rohingyas in October 2021.

[73] Bangladeshi officials accused ARSA of being responsible for the killing of an intelligence officer and a Rohingya woman on 14 November during a counter-narcotics operations near the border with Myanmar.

[74] ARSA and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) on 18 January 2023 clashed in a refugee camp, located near the Naikhongchhari Upazila in the no man's land of the Bangladesh–Myanmar border.

[79][80] ARSA and the Arakan Army (AA) clashed on 19 July in the Mayu mountains near Sein Hnyin Pyar and Gu Dar Pyin villages.

[90] According to the Arakan Army and Rohingya refugees, ARSA forcibly press gangs young men and boys to fight with the Myanmar military; most soldiers later flee.

[42] On 9 November, Myint Khyine, the secretary of the Immigration and Population Department, blamed the deaths of 18 village leaders in the past three months in Maungdaw and Buthidaung, on ARSA.

Survivors claimed that in the village of Kha Maung Seik, ARSA insurgents killed the men, whilst the women were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam.

We, the sons of Arakan soil, who are compelled by our dire situation to follow our own destiny through uprising, self-determination and self-defence, stand as an independent body which is free from all elements of terror in any nature, seek fundamental but legitimate rights and other justice for all Arakanese, including our fellow innocent Rohingyas and other civilians dying from the continuous military assaults.

We categorically state that our people have chosen to free themselves from their oppressors, from the tragic deaths in the Bay of Bengal, in the Thai jungles and at the hands of human traffickers.