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This week on Vice:

escaping an ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.

The signs in front are asking all Rohingya to come in,

give their personal information to receive aid.

The concern, though, is that that information is actually being used

to repatriate families back to Myanmar.

And then, the cost of keeping the peace in Africa.

What is the biggest misunderstanding about the UN?

Most of the peace-keeping operations today

are taking place where there is no peace to keep.

They're saying that right now, it's time for change.

This past summer, the plight

of a little-known Muslim minority group in Myanmar

made headlines around the world.

Reports of government orchestrated

torture, rape, and ethnic cleansing

against a minority group in the country of Myanmar.

These people, the Rohingya, have been subject

to decades of government-led persecution,

and with the rise of Buddhist nationalism across the country,

this crisis has reached a boiling point.

A recent wave of brutal violence

has forced nearly 700,000 Rohingya

to flee into neighboring Bangladesh.

So, we sent Gianna Toboni to the epicenter

of the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis

to investigate the future of the Rohingya.

This is the waterway that the Rohingya have used,

in order to escape Myanmar

and get to Bangladesh.

We're out here with the Bangladeshi border patrol.

Lieutenant Colonel Arif is gonna give us an idea

of what the last few months have been like for them.

Bangladesh's border guard was on the front lines

as Rohingya refugees began fleeing Myanmar

following the latest round of fighting in Rakhine State.

After decades of persecution, a group of Rohingyan insurgents

formed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA.

They say they're fighting for citizenship and basic rights.

On August 25th, they launched a coordinated attack

on multiple security outposts, killing 12 officers.

Within hours, the military responded with a brutal crackdown.

In so-called clearance operations,

the military is accused of killing thousands of Rohingya,

committing widespread rape, and burning down entire villages.

We have seen the villages

burning very, very clearly.

All these places were totally covered with smoke.

At the height of this crisis,

how many people were crossing per day?

In one wave, there'll be 10,000 to 15,000.

- In a day? - Yeah, in a day.

They have to cross this river,

but there were too many persons in one boat,

so they was capsizing of the boats.

We have to recover lots of dead bodies.

As hundreds of thousands of Rohingya flee,

Bangladesh have left their borders completely open.

Many of those Rohingya are living in Kutupalong Extension Site,

now the world's largest refugee camp.

This is one of the most densely populated places in the world,

and just in the last few months,

more than 650,000 Rohingya refugees have landed here.

The Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for centuries,

and they're not officially recognized

as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups.

The government denies them citizenship

and claims they're illegal immigrants

that have crossed over from Bangladesh,

making them, essentially, a stateless people.

Nearly everybody we spoke to

had photos and videos on their phones

documenting the atrocities that they say were committed

against them by the military.

Oh my God.

Who filmed this?

Since the violence broke out,

the government has imposed a near media blackout in Rakhine State.

But a network of Rohingya bloggers are determined to find ways

to get information out of Rakhine,

though they face detention and arrest

if they're caught inside Myanmar.

We're walking to meet a citizen journalist, or blogger.

He's one of the people who's been sneaking out videos and photos

of what's happening, which is incredibly important

for human rights organizations,

but also for journalists like us who can't get access there.

How is information...

how are these videos and photos getting out?

- So you have a WhatsApp group of... - Yeah.

... of different bloggers and journalists,

and that's how you're getting the information.

What do you think happened to them?

What kinds of crimes are the Burmese military

committing against the Rohingya people?

While some Buddhist monks,

like the infamous Ashin Wirathu, are notorious

for perpetuating hate speech against the Rohingya,

it's the military that encourages those sentiments,

in some cases denying Rohingya even exist.

Even Aung San Suu Kyi,

a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize,

has repeatedly defended the security forces

from international criticism.

I don't think there's ethnic cleansing going on.

It's a matter of people on different sides of a divide.

Pressure continues to mount against Suu Kyi,

especially when stories of survivors are released,

like that of 26-year-old Jamalida, who fled Myanmar

in an earlier wave of violence in 2016.

Jamalida tried to come forward

with her story in Myanmar.

She gave an interview to both the media

and the government, who claimed there

were discrepancies in her account.

On the Facebook page for Suu Kyi's office,

a post claimed her story was an example of "fake rape."

Within days of her interview with the journalists,

locals warned Jamalida that the military was searching for her.

As hundreds of thousands of Rohingya

flee persecution in Myanmar,

they're now met with resistance in Bangladesh.

Local authorities are cutting off

all Rohingya access to the rest of the country,

essentially trapping them in the camps.

All these Bangladeshi police officers down here

are pulling over these tuk-tuks.

They're trying to make sure that Rohingya

don't leave the camps and go into Cox's Bazar.

Who are these people?

Rohingya. And so where are you sending them?

How have the Rohingya people affected your economy,

affected your day-to-day?

The Rohingya now outnumber the locals here,

and Bangladeshi community leaders are increasingly frustrated

by the impact this has had on their economy.

While these anti-Rohingya sentiments intensify,

the Bangladeshi government is registering the Rohingya,

which could lead to what they all fear:

being sent back to the country

where they've been hunted by the military

and still have no citizenship or basic rights.

This center right here is being run by the Bangladeshi military.

All the signs in front are asking all Rohingya

to come in, give their personal information,

and all their biometrics, in order to receive aid.

The concern, though, is that that information

is actually being used to register

and repatriate families back to Myanmar.

What are you doing here today?

Does it concern you that the information you're giving them

is gonna be used to repatriate your family?

Government officials running the registration center

denied our request for an official interview

but confirmed what we suspected.

Will this information be used to repatriate these people?

- Yes? - Okay. Yes.

Do you feel like it's misleading them,

telling them to register so they can receive aid

when in fact the information's gonna be used to repatriate them?

No?

Because they think that they're here

to receive aid, and that's why they're registering.

They don't think this information is being used to repatriate them.

- It doesn't matter what they're thinking? - What they're thinking.

But this is their lives, right?

If they're repatriated, their lives could be at risk.

In February, Bangladesh turned over a list

of more than 8,000 Rohingya,

the first group meant to be sent back to Myanmar

under the repatriation agreement.

As people begin to talk about repatriation,

what's the fear?

Concentration camp?

These fears are not unfounded.

Myanmar recently announced the construction of so-called transit camps,

where repatriated Rohingya could be held against their will.

The continued threat of repatriation has

only exasperated tensions among ARSA,

the militant group whose attack

reportedly first sparked this wave of violence.

This 20-year-old soldier says he joined ARSA

after he was tortured by the military

and he was there on the night of the 25th.

Plans for repatriation are in the works.

It was supposed to start today.

Does ARSA have any plans to attack

in protest of this?

The future of the Rohingya remains more uncertain than ever.

With the start of monsoon season,

landslides, flooding, and waterborne diseases

threaten to worsen the already dire conditions in the camps.

Thousands of lives may be at risk,

and pressure is building on the international community

to step in and help.

But so far, the US and EU have done little more

than donate funds to Bangladesh

and issue statements condemning Myanmar.

And China and Russia have repeatedly blocked

the UN Security Council from taking action.

Vice cofounder Suroosh Alvi sat down

with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

to understand the role that the global community should play

in protecting the Rohingya from a potential genocide.

How bad is the Rohingya crisis right now

in Myanmar and Bangladesh?

It's absolutely terrible.

I have never seen a population so discriminated in the world.

There were tens and tens of villages burned to the ground,

violations of human rights that are absolutely intolerable,

rape in horrible numbers,

and this is the worst crisis we are facing in today's world.

It is essential that the international community is able

to tell the authorities in Myanmar, especially the military authorities,

that violence needs to stop and that the people that fled

have the right to return and the right to return in safety,

in dignity, voluntarily, and that conditions

need to be created for them to be well-received.

But is anyone listening you?

Well, there is people listening,

but there is not yet a unanimous approach to this crisis,

allowing international community to speak with one voice

and to tell the authorities in Myanmar, "Stop."

What the Rohingya are asking for

are basic human rights, recognition, and security

before they agree to be repatriated.

Now, this would require the international community to step in

and for the United Nations to oversee these efforts.

However, if we look at past and current UN missions worldwide,

we can see that this will not be an easy task.

To understand the myriad of complex problems facing these UN forces,

also known as Blue Helmets, you have no further to look

than their most dangerous active mission, Mali.

I read something that you said. "The world is in trouble."

I think I said, "World is a mess."

So, is the world in more of a mess today

than it was when you were prime minister of Portugal?

Yes, I mean, we have a multiplication of new conflicts.

When I was young, we lived in a bipolar world.

You have the Cold War. On one side, the United States,

on the other side, the Soviet Union.

And when things might risk to be out of control,

the two superpowers would normally find a way.

Today, we live in a world that is no longer bipolar,

and you no longer have wars between countries.

You have situations in which

in one country there are plenty of different actors.

You have government troops, sometimes international troops,

ethnic groups, religious groups, political groups,

and those conflicts are becoming more and more interlinked.

If you look for instance at Iraq,

Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan,

you have fighters that go from one place to another.

So there is a link between all these conflicts

and this new, global threat of terrorism.

This global terrorism is best embodied by ISIS,

who have largely been defeated in Syria and Iraq,

but is gaining momentum in destabilized nations around the world,

most notably the Sahel region of Northern Africa.

What does that mean in the context of the mission in Mali,

what's being called the most dangerous place in the world right now?

What you have in Mali is a situation

in which you have terrorists groups operating,

but the Peacekeepers were sent to Mali

because of a peace agreement with several of the movements

that did not include terrorist groups that are operating there.

And so, in Mali, we have a peacekeeping force

that has had more casualties than anywhere else.

Correct me if I'm wrong, UN forces, they can't fire their guns

unless they're shot upon, but in Mali,

they're actually getting into counterterrorism

- and fighting a war on terror. - That is the problem.

Mali is exactly the example

where the peacekeeping force by itself

will never be able to solve the problem.

The operations in Mali could be the key

to stopping terrorism as it spreads across Africa.

And Secretary-General Guterres gave one of our crews,

led by correspondent Aris Roussinos,

exclusive access to join UN Peacekeepers on the ground

on their most dangerous active operation.

We're about to head off

with a Bangladeshi battalion based here in Gao,

all the way up to Anéfis, about two days' drive north,

across terrible roads and hostile territory.

The UN sources Peacekeepers

from all around the world,

offering $1,300 a month

to recruits drawn mostly

from countries like Ethiopia,

Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Tell us about the convoy and what we're doing.

What happened on 24th of September?

Since 2013, more than 100 Peacekeepers

have been killed.

That IED was one of at least seven other attacks in less than a year,

along the same route our convoy was now planning to take.

- Good luck. - Thank you.

Mali became a hot spot for instability

after the collapse of the Libyan regime,

flooding the region with weapons.

Jihadist groups and multiple Malian rebel factions vying for power

left Mali in disarray.

Today, the UN mission here, called MINUSMA

is responsible for maintaining a tenuous peace agreement

that only half of the warring factions actually support.

Five years into the international intervention in Mali,

and the security situation is still so bad

that the only way to bring vitally needed goods

up to the north of the country is in convoys like this,

escorted by heavily armed UN Peacekeepers,

like these Bangladeshi troops.

Some of the groups fighting here...

Al Qaeda, the Islamic State...

they've been fighting the best-equipped,

most powerful militaries in the world

for nearly two decades now.

Do you think the UN Peacekeeping force

is capable of taking on such a powerful enemy?

This policy cedes the initiative to jihadist groups

like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State,

ensuring that they will always determine

when and where an attack occurs.

This leaves the Peacekeepers operating on the front lines

in a precarious position

when unplanned stops occur.

One of the civilian trucks, been escorting us,

had a mechanical failure,

so we stopped at this village in the middle of the desert.

The UN Peacekeepers here, they're handing out supplies.

These supplies are part of the UN's

hearts-and-mind strategy to win over villagers

and limit the insurgents' influence.

Winning the hearts and minds of these villagers

is a crucial part of the peacekeeping missions.

The most complex perception about peacekeeping is the following:

Peacekeeping was conceived, as the name indicates,

to keep the peace.

And so the idea is, let's have a force of the world,

Blue Helmets, that is not supposed to fight.

The Peacekeepers were supposed to preserve

the stability of a country that has reached peace.

The truth is that most of the Peacekeeping operations today

are taking place where there is no peace to keep.

For outsiders,

entering these unfamiliar areas can prove fatal.

In October of last year,

four US soldiers were ambushed

in a local village on Mali's border with Niger.

US officials describe a scene of confusion

during that October 4th attack,

involving some 50 ISIS-affiliated fighters near the Mali border.

The Islamic State showed off footage of the ambush,

which some speculate occurred after local village elders

tipped off a jihadist group to the Americans' presence.

Who is in control of this area, this area of the desert?

You can see just above us is a German Tiger attack helicopter

giving us air cover as we go through what is an Arab-populated town

that's hostile to the international presence here.

We've stopped here, waiting for a civilian vehicle,

one of the trucks that's broken down.

That mechanical failure

placed us in a region controlled by the MAA,

an ethnic Arab militia accused

of maintaining relationships with jihadist groups.

Okay.

Last year, despite millions in aid,

reported jihadist attacks in Mali

were up 500 percent from 2014.

There's still a couple of hours of daylight left,

but the Bangladeshi UN Peacekeepers here

are already setting up camp for the night.

They're moving the civilian supply trucks into the middle

and putting the armored vehicles around them

for defense during the night.

The next section of the road, all the way up to Anéfis,

that's the most dangerous part of the journey,

the most hostile local population,

where the UN faced the most attacks.

We've reached the end of this leg of the journey.

We're in the oasis settlement of Anéfis.

We're going to be handed over to next UN contingent,

but we're not entirely sure which nationality they'll be.

That's the nature of working the multinational force.

We joined Senegalese Peacekeepers

on their routine intelligence-gathering mission in local villages.

The village is entirely empty. There's no one here.

It's kind of weird.

What we saw in these contested areas

was a sense of distrust

between the UN and the locals.

And that distrust is driven in part

because the locals often don't understand

what the UN's role in the region is supposed to be.

As the attacks continue in Mali

and across the Sahel,

the deteriorating security situation

is leading some to call for the UN mandate to be expanded

in an effort to stabilize the region.

What are the implications if the international community

can't gain control of what's happening in Mali?

It's not only Mali. It's Libya that's not far away.

Nigeria, the Boko Haram, is also not far away.

If these area fails,

this will have tragic consequences for the people there.

But the instability and the insecurity will spread,

migrant movements will increase exponentially,

and this will be a serious threat for all the region,

with very clear implications for Europe.

We need to understand the challenges we face are global,

that no country can do it alone.

If we fail to do so,

I'm afraid the mess will get worse.

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