In the months before the massacre in Maung Nu, residents had been living under the harsh military rule: soldiers had entered the town that June and confiscated kitchen knives and machetes, torn down fence posts, and prevented lights from being used in homes after 6pm. As tensions rose, military forces tied pieces of red cloth around mango trees in front of Rohingya houses and a local mosque to identify locations where Muslims lived and worshipped.

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 On 25 August, 2017, ARSA members attacked a border guard and military base near the village, igniting a wave of regional violence. Two days later, military trucks entered the village. Many villagers fled to the compound of one of the wealthy families in town, seeking safety. They believed they would be protected from bullets by the mud walls of the homes and that the prominence of the owners who had previously interacted with security forces.  Instead, the military forced the remaining villagers onto the property, separating men and women. Soldiers made the women take of their clothing so that they could inspect them for valuables and women’s headscarves were used to gag their husbands. Many of the women were sexually assaulted. Men and older boys were tied together and beaten. That afternoon, the killings began. Victims were stabbed and shot in several places on the property. According to several witnesses, as the afternoon wore on and the killings became more organized, soldiers began to dig pits in which to dispose the bodies. By the end of the day, at least 200 villagers were missing and 82 were confirmed dead.