[00:00.00]The Rohingya are an ethnic group from Myanmar.
[00:05.67]They have been displaced from that country and many now live in some of the world's largest refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh.
[00:16.19]Recently, Reuters news agency reported that thousands of Rohingya fighters are coming out of the camps and getting involved in conflicts in the area.
[00:28.00]Reuters spoke to people who said that between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters have joined armed groups.
[00:36.00]One example is 32-year-old Rafiq who fled Myanmar in 2017.
[00:43.74]He left a huge refugee settlement in southern Bangladesh in July.
[00:50.82]He crossed back into the country that he fled with the goal of fighting in its civil war.
[00:57.74]Thousands of Rohingya militants like Rafiq have come from camps with over a million refugees in Cox's Bazar.
[01:06.21]Aid agencies and individuals told Reuters that recruitment by militant groups and violence has increased sharply this year.
[01:16.65]"We need to fight to take back our lands," said Rafiq.
[01:21.98]He spent weeks fighting in Myanmar before returning after he was shot in the leg.
[01:28.39]"There is no other way."
[01:30.27]The Rohingya are mainly a Muslim group.
[01:34.92]They started fleeing in large numbers to Bangladesh in 2016 because of violence there.
[01:43.52]The Rohingya are believed to be the world's largest stateless population.
[01:50.50]However, a rebellion in Myanmar has gained support since the military seized power from democratically elected leaders in 2021.
[02:03.71]The rebellion involves several armed groups inside the country.
[02:10.29]Among them are the Arakan Army ethnic militia which is active in Rakhine State.
[02:17.55]Now, Rohingya fighters are joining the fight on the side of the military government.
[02:25.36]Shahab Enam Khan is an international relations professor at Bangladesh's Jahangirnagar University.
[02:35.42]He said that the two largest Rohingya militant groups are the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).
[02:52.25]Khan said they do not appear to have a lot of support in the camps in Cox's Bazar.
[03:00.06]But Khan said dissatisfied refugees could be pulled into militant activities and pushed further into criminal activities.
[03:11.46]That could then involve other countries in the area as well.
[03:17.28]Rohingya militant Abu Afna took a boat from near the camps to Maungdaw in western Myanmar during the mid-year rainy season.
[03:29.59]He said he was housed and armed by the Myanmar military government.
[03:36.82]"Our main enemy isn't the Myanmar government, but the Rakhine community," Abu Afna said.
[03:45.62]The military government provided Rohingya with weapons, training and money, Abu Afna said.
[03:55.03]It also offered the Rohingya a Myanmar citizenship card.
[04:00.40]Citizenship is important to the Rohingya because Myanmar has long denied the group citizenship in Myanmar.
[04:10.21]However, in the refugee camps in Bangladesh, they cannot hold jobs.
[04:17.32]"We didn't go for the money," Abu Afna said. "We wanted the card, nationality."
[04:25.12]A U.N. official and two Rohingya fighters said many were forced to fight in the conflict in Myanmar, including children as young as 13.
[04:37.96]In Rakhine state, militants have struggled to push back the heavily-armed and better prepared Arakan Army.
[04:46.56]But the battle for Maungdaw has continued for six months and Rohingya fighters said they have slowed the rebel offensive.
[04:57.65]Bangladesh tried to organize talks between Rohingya fighters and the Arakan Army earlier this year, but they did not succeed.
[05:08.06]Back in Cox's Bazar, there is unrest in the camps.
[05:13.22]The Rohingya militant groups, the RSO and ARSA, are competing for influence.
[05:21.43]Fighting and shootings are common.
[05:24.89]People in the camps are fearful, and the fighting is disrupting humanitarian efforts.
[05:32.15]John Quinley is director at the human rights group Fortify Rights.
[05:37.83]He said violence was at the highest level since the camps opened in 2017.
[05:45.25]The nonprofit group reported that armed groups have killed at least 60 people this year, while capturing and torturing opponents and using threats "to try to silence their critics."
[06:01.91]Wendy McCance is director of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Bangladesh.
[06:09.75]She warned that money given by international groups for the camps might end within 10 years.
[06:18.49]She called for refugees to be given the chance to work for a living.
[06:24.33]If not, there will be many young men without jobs who could join violent groups.
[06:32.03]Sharit Ullah is a Rohingya man who escaped from Maungdaw with his wife and four children in May.
[06:42.73]Now they are in the camps at Cox's Bazar.
[06:47.15]He said he was struggling to get food.
[06:50.68]The former rice and shrimp farmer said his biggest worry is the safety of his family.
[06:58.97]"We have nothing here," he said, "We live in fear."
[07:03.85]I'm Mario Ritter Jr. And I'm Jill Robbins.
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Words in This Story
recruit - v. to find suitable people and get them to join a company, an organization, the armed forces, or the like
disrupt - v. to cause (something) to be unable to continue in the normal way; to interrupt the normal progress or activity of something
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