Myanmar’s military-backed government said on Saturday (August 15, 2026) that more than 3,00,000 Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh are former residents of western Rakhine state and that it will accept their return once security conditions improve.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement comes as the Rohingya refugee crisis enters its ninth year, with hundreds of thousands of refugees still living in camps in Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar in August 2017 when the military launched a crackdown following attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group on guard posts in Rakhine.

The operation drove more than 7,00,000 Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh, joining hundreds of thousands of others already living there for decades in the wake of waves of previous violence perpetrated by Myanmar’s military.

The scale, organisation and ferocity of the operation led to accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide from the international community, including the UN.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, does not recognise the Rohingya as one of the country’s 135 lawful ethnic minorities, instead referring to them as Bengalis to imply they are natives from Bangladesh and are illegally settled in Myanmar.

Myanmar said it had verified 4,26,545 of the 8,28,824 refugees on a list provided by Bangladesh as of the end of July, and determined that 3,08,797 of those verified were former residents of Rakhine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 113,507 people could not be verified and that 4,241 people were found to have been involved in what it called terrorist activities.

The statement said it will continue working with Bangladesh to receive verified former residents when the security situation in Rakhine becomes more stable.

The ministry also rejected claims that more than 1 million people were displaced from Rakhine, saying that more than 5,40,000 people crossed into Bangladesh after the violence in 2017 while more than 2,00,000 remained in northern Rakhine.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed to a two-year repatriation process in 2018. However, security in Myanmar worsened following an army takeover in 2021 that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering widespread armed resistance. Plans to repatriate the refugees have not succeeded.

The renewed chaos brought about by fighting between the Rakhine-based ethnic Arakan Army group and the military over control of the region in 2023 forced more refugees to flee toward Bangladesh and elsewhere in a desperate move to save their lives. The Arakan Army controls much of Rakhine after capturing territory from the military in recent years.

In recent years, poor conditions in refugee camps, steep cuts to foreign aid and the lack of safe prospects for returning to Myanmar have led to an increasing number of Rohingya refugees attempting to make the dangerous ocean crossing to Malaysia and Indonesia on rickety boats.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in late July that Myanmar had agreed to take back 5,000 Rohingya refugees currently living in Malaysia as part of a repatriation programme.

However, an official from Myanmar’s foreign ministry, Han Win Aung, told The Associated Press at the time that the repatriation program was focused solely on verified Myanmar nationals currently held in detention centres in Malaysia and rejected reports that the government would accept Rohingya.

An order by South Sudan’s army to evacuate the opposition-held town of Akobo earlier this month pushed an estimated 1,00,000 people to flee across the border into Ethiopia, UNICEF said Tuesday (March 17, 2026).

Akobo in the eastern state of Jonglei is the latest flashpoint as fighting between the government and opposition has brought South Sudan back to the brink of all-out civil war.

The army ordered an evacuation of the town, including foreign aid agencies, on March 6.

It claims to have since taken control of Akobo, though there have been conflicting reports of events on the ground, which have been impossible to verify due to limited communications.

A security source told AFP that the army had taken over the military barracks in Akobo and destroyed buildings in the vicinity to create a buffer zone, but no official report had yet been issued.

The UN children’s agency said “violence and conflict are raging” across Jonglei, creating a “deteriorating situation for children”.

“An estimated 100,000 people have crossed the border into Ethiopia, and others have moved to safer areas in Jonglei and Upper Nile states,” UNICEF said in a statement.

“All those receiving treatment in Akobo hospital — previously a safe haven for the sick and injured — have left. Reports confirm that the hospital has been looted and is now closed.”

It said rates of malnutrition among displaced children were “worryingly high”.

Twenty-eight health and nutrition facilities have been destroyed, looted or shut in Jonglei so far this year, at a time when the region is facing a cholera outbreak, the agency said.

South Sudan gained independence in 2011 but soon descended into civil war and remains mired in extreme poverty and corruption.

A 2018 power-sharing deal between President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival Riek Machar has been unravelling since early 2025, with clashes in multiple areas and fears of a return to full-blown war.