In northern Arakan (Rakhine), the Arakan Army (AA) is weaponizing education as a tool of oppression against Rohingya communities. Field reports and NGO monitoring confirm that AA forces are actively blocking the delivery of textbooks, school uniforms, and learning kits to Rohingya children, particularly in Buthidaung, Maungdaw, and surrounding villages.

Aid convoys attempting to distribute educational materials are intercepted at checkpoints, staff are harassed, and shipments are delayed or confiscated. This is not a sporadic obstruction; it is a coordinated strategy to deny basic education and maintain social control.

By preventing access to schools and resources, AA ensures that children remain illiterate, dependent, and cut off from opportunities, effectively eroding the social resilience of entire villages. Analysts note that these restrictions follow a broader pattern of AA domination: just as the group extorts families, displaces residents, and suppresses community leadership, it now systematically targets the next generation.

Schools are treated as potential hubs of resistance; teachers and students are pressured or threatened, and community learning initiatives are blocked. The implications extend beyond immediate deprivation by dismantling educational structures, AA reinforces intergenerational marginalization, ensuring Rohingya children grow up under coercion, fear, and limited agency.

From a strategic perspective, controlling education serves multiple AA objectives: it weakens community cohesion, increases dependence on AA-controlled systems, and cements territorial control while denying the international community tangible proof of Rohingya recovery or normalcy.

This is a deliberate campaign to suppress knowledge, silence voices, and perpetuate Rohingya vulnerability. The blockade of education is not collateral it is a calculated assault on the future of the Rohingya people.⁩