Most fled to Bangladesh, resulting in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp,[4][6][7] while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia, where they continue to face persecution.

The Burmese military was accused of committing ethnic cleansing and genocide by various United Nations agencies, International Criminal Court officials, human rights groups, journalists, and governments.

[13][14][15] The UN[16][17][18] found evidence of wide-scale human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings; summary executions; gang rapes; arson of Rohingya villages, businesses, and schools; and infanticides.

[26] Subsequently, in November 2017, the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a deal to facilitate the return of Rohingya refugees to Rakhine State within two months, which drew mixed responses from international onlookers.

The Burmese leader and State Counsellor (de facto head of government) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was criticised for her inaction and silence over the issue and did little to prevent military abuses.

In late September 2017, a seven-member panel of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal found the Burmese military and authority guilty of the crime of genocide against the Rohingya and the Kachin minority groups.

[89] In a report published in March 2024, the IIMM stated the military had in a "systematic and coordinated" manner "spread material designed to instil fear and hatred of the Rohingya minority".

[93] On 4 July 2017, a mob of at least a hundred Rakhine Buddhists in Sittwe attacked seven Rohingya men from the Dapaing camp for internally displaced persons with bricks,[94] killing one and severely injuring another.

[98] On 30 July 2017, packages of high energy biscuits gifted from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) as aid were discovered in a terrorist hideout in the Mayu mountain range in Maungdaw Township.

[121] A video provided to ABC News by a human rights monitor purportedly shows the village burning and in another clip of freshly dug earth mound, allegedly graves of those killed.

The 33rd Light Infantry Division of Myanmar Army, the 8th Security Police Battalion, and the Buddhist villagers took part in the looting which included Rohingya property, goats, cows, cattle, and motorcycles.

[134] Rohingya from Buthidaung stated to NUG Deputy Human Rights Minister, Aung Kyaw Moe that the Arakha Army burnt down the town after telling them to leave on May 17th.

[142] In November 2017, both the UN officials and the Human Rights Watch reported that the Armed Forces of Myanmar had committed widespread gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against the Rohingya Muslim women and girls for the prior three months.

According to the Mission report of OHCHR (released on 11 October 2017 by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), the Burmese military began a "systematic" process of driving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar in early August 2017.

Including 100 men from four villages in Buthidaung Township, they undergo 14 days of basic training while the junta promises them ID cards, a bag of rice, and a monthly salary of US$41.

[180] This decision, coming after both the United Nations and Rex Tillerson, U.S. Secretary of State, declared that the actions undertaken by the Burmese army against the Rohingya refugees constituted ethnic cleansing, was met with hesitation and criticism by aid groups.

Specifically, the editor in chief of the Myanmar Times sent a memo to his editorial team stating: ... no material is to be run in any of our newspapers with regard to the Rohingya, Bengalis, Muslims and Buddhists and the ongoing issues in Rakhine without direct approval from my desk ... Our coverage is unlikely to matter substantively in the scheme of things and there appears little sense in placing our heads on the block right at this time ...[182]According to Irrawaddy founder Aung Zaw in 2015, Burmese reporters were told by their editors to use caution or ignore the Rohingya issue when reporting.

[183] Myanmar-based Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin noted in the same year that all local media outlets including Burmese-language versions of BBC, VOA and RFA adopted a bias in favour of the military after the 2012 Rakhine State riots.

In a protest rally in early December, Malaysia's prime minister Najib Razak criticised the Myanmar authority for the military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, and described the ongoing persecution as "genocide".

[73][195] In November 2016, a senior United Nations official, John McKissick, accused Myanmar of conducting ethnic cleansing in the Rakhine state in order to free it from the Muslim minority.

The UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein stated "The cruelty to which these Rohingya children have been subjected to is unbearable—what kind of hatred could make a man stab a baby who was crying out for his mother's milk?

[211] Matthew Smith of the NGO Fortify Rights said "[w]e can now say with a high level of confidence that state-led security forces and local armed residents have committed mass killings."

[216][217] Aung San Suu Kyi personally led a legal team at the International Court of Justice to defend Myanmar in the first public hearings for this case on 10–12 December 2019.

[216][224] In November 2024, the prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Ahmad Khan, requested an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing, holding him responsible for crimes against humanity for his role in the genocide.

[235] As the 2018 Independent Fact-Finding Mission Report highlighted, UN agencies were aware of Rohingya persecution for almost three decades, with five consecutive Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Myanmar having been appointed since 1992.

[236] However, the Independent Fact-Finding Mission Report noted: "While Myanmar was repeatedly identified as a crisis situation requiring a human rights-driven response by the "whole of the United Nations", this approach was rarely, if ever, taken.

Moreover, a September 2017 BBC investigation reported that, in an attempt to promote investment into Myanmar, UN officials prevented human rights activists travelling to Rohingya areas, tried to shut down public advocacy on the subject, and isolated staff that warned of ethnic cleansing.

[241] In November, British prime minister Theresa May and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described the situation as "ethnic cleansing"[242][243] while the French President Emmanuel Macron called it genocide.

Myanmar's relatively recent democratic transition did not provide the country with substantial time to form professional and reliable media outlets free from government intervention.

"[253] On 6 December 2021, approximately a hundred Rohingya refugees launched a $150 billion lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that it did not do enough to prevent the proliferation of anti-Rohingya hate speech because it was interested in prioritizing engagement.