Each month, ACLED’s Asia Pacific Team collects information on the dates, actors, locations, fatalities, and types of all reported political violence and protest events in the region.
Details below on significant developments in March 2025 in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, South Korea and Thailand.
Bangladesh: Militant activity heightens in Rohingya refugee camps
Militant activity in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar increased in March. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) was involved in four violent actions, including clashes with the rival Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and attacks on civilians. This marked the most activity involving ARSA in a single month since December 2023.
ARSA, formed to end the persecution of Rohingya at the hands of the Myanmar state forces, operates within Bangladesh’s refugee camps and has frequently clashed with the RSO over dominance. On March 4 and 16, ARSA killed two RSO members in separate incidents, while a gunfight between the two groups in Cox’s Bazar resulted in one person killed on March 8.
Rights groups have consistently urged Bangladesh authorities to protect Rohingya refugees caught in the middle of clashes between armed groups and have accused them of failing to do so. In a significant development, Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion arrested ARSA leader Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi on the outskirts of Dhaka on March 18. Jununi was reportedly partly responsible for instigating a series of attacks on Myanmar border outposts in 2016 and 2017 that led to a military crackdown on the Rohingya community in Myanmar and the exodus of more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh. Despite his arrest, the group’s continued violence — including killings, abductions, torture, sexual assault, and forced marriages that target critics, opponents, and members of the wider community — is likely to persist as key ARSA figures urge continued action. Following Jununi’s arrest, dozens of Rohingya refugees held prayer meetings demanding his release.
Myanmar: Civilians subject to increased deadly airstrikes in Magway and Mandalay regions
Fatalities from military airstrikes significantly increased in March. The military’s escalation was most felt in the Magway region, which recorded more than triple the number of airstrikes compared to February; and in the Mandalay region, which recorded the highest number of reported fatalities among all states and regions. ACLED recorded around 250 airstrike events carried out by the military in March, with one-third of these occurring in the Magway and Mandalay regions.
The recent increase in airstrikes in Magway is likely aimed at countering the Arakan Army’s offensives, which have targeted military weapons facilities in Magway and Bago regions. Last month, the Arakan Army inflicted heavy casualties on the military, including over 100 reported fatalities, during the capture of a telecommunications tower outpost in Ngape township, Magway region. During one junta airstrike on March 22, 11 civilians — including a doctor, his pregnant wife, and a nurse — were killed in Gangaw township.
In the Mandalay region, the military carried out targeted strikes on resistance-controlled areas. In the deadliest strike of the month, on March 14 the military dropped bombs on a crowded market on the Mogoke-Mandalay road in Singu township, which is under the control of the Mandalay People’s Defense Force and allied resistance groups, killing at least 27 civilians including six children.
Despite the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake on March 28 that caused widespread destruction and killed over 3,000 people, the military has blocked aid and rescuers from entering areas they do not fully control in Sagaing and Mandalay regions, requiring permits to prevent medicine from reaching resistance-controlled areas.
Between March 28 and 31, the military conducted 17 more airstrikes, relentlessly continuing their attacks despite the widespread earthquake devastation and the desperate need for emergency relief. On April 2, the military announced a unilateral temporary ceasefire for three weeks, with several other armed groups also announcing similar ceasefires before and after the military’s announcement. However, the military quickly broke the ceasefire, conducting airstrikes in at least five locations, including Indaw township in quake-hit Sagaing region, the following day.
