Internal reform, external strain: Bangladesh’s transition and the future of the Rohingya crisis (Lunchtime discussion)

Link to the program recording here.

Following the student uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s regime last year, Bangladesh’s interim government is implementing an ambitious reform agenda ahead of elections expected between December 2025 and June 2026. One of its top foreign policy challenges is the Rohingya refugee crisis, which has grown more complex with the rise of the Arakan Army and its consolidation of control over the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and much of Rakhine state in Myanmar.

This lunchtime discussion brings together International Crisis Group expert on Bangladesh, Thomas Kean, Bangladeshi journalist and researcher Tanbirul Miraj Ripon, founder and executive of the Women’s Peace Network, Wai Wai Nu, and independent journalist Verena Hölzl to discuss Bangladesh’s delicate political transition as well as mounting challenges to the Rohingya humanitarian response, including deepening funding cuts and an insurgency emerging from the refugee camps that is actively targeting the Arakan Army in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

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‍Speakers include:
‍Thomas Kean, senior consultant on Myanmar & Bangladesh, International Crisis Group.

‍Wai Wai Nu, founder and executive of the Women’s Peace Network.

‍Tanbirul Miraj Ripon, freelance journalist from Bangladesh.

Moderator: Verena Hölzl, independent journalist based in Bangkok.