The August Beach Massacre
Photos and Testimony
New photo essay in The Diplomat
On 5 August 2024, at Fayazipara beach in Maungdaw, Mohammed Amin, 29, was among hundreds of Rohingya waiting for boats when drones struck the crowd. He and other survivors attribute the attack to the Arakan Army (AA); the AA denies targeting civilians. Amin lost seven relatives that evening, including his parents, two sisters, his two-year-old son, and his brother Anis. He recalls the chaos in simple terms: “We were waiting to cross. Then the sky fell.”
Distressing content. Video: Fayazipara beach, Maungdaw, 5 August 2024: bodies lie amid scattered belongings beside the Myanmar–Bangladesh border pillars as a witness films the aftermath and a man cries. Survivors attribute the drone strike to the Arakan Army; the AA denies targeting civilians. Video supplied by survivors.
Through the night, the brothers remained on the shore. At first light on 6 August, a boatman landed them on Jaliardiya island. Amin says men identifying with a Rohingya armed group robbed and beat them, and Anis died later that day. Separately, a villager ferried Amin’s younger brother Shokat Noor across the Naf to Teknaf, and relatives secured permission from AA for Amin’s wife, Ummai Salma, also seriously injured, to cross on 11 August for treatment in Cox’s Bazar. By December, the survivors were registered in Camp 27.
Amin does not speak of repatriation to the place that took his family. He asks for sustained medical support, protection, and the chance to rebuild a life that isn’t temporary.
heartbreaking
Extremely sad that these atrocities go on. Thank you for making this most recent massacre known to the rest of the world.