Arakan State News Summary (May 23-31, 2022)

By DMG 31 May 2022

23 May 

• The Arakan State Public Health Department said it had administered Covid-19 booster shots to more than 176,079 people aged 40 and above across Arakan State’s 17 townships.
• Family members called on authorities to allow them to visit inmates detained in prisons across Arakan State after many relatives said they’d not been able to meet with their loved ones since the third wave of Covid-19 struck last year.
• With the opening of Myanmar’s public schools approaching, students from camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State need school supplies, according to camp officials and parents.
• The Myanmar military arrested a Muslim man from Myaungnarkam village in Buthidaung Township, accusing him of having illegal ties to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), according to locals.
• White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) was found in mud crab and crayfish being exported from Arakan State to China, and the export of seafood was suspended on May 23, according to the state’s Fisheries Department.
• Twenty-one residents of Kyauktaw Township’s Tinma village have gone missing since two years ago, but families of the missing say they are still without even a scrap of information about their loved ones’ whereabouts. 

24 May

• Covid-19 rules and regulations remain in force for air travellers and at border trade camps in Arakan State despite low new infection numbers over recent weeks, according to the Arakan State Public Health Department.
• Assistance is still needed to build more than 100 houses at the Mahamuni IDP camp in Kyauktaw Township.
• Some residents of Wabo village in Sittwe Township fled after about 50 junta soldiers were deployed to the village monastery and school.
• There were 66 reported cases of dengue fever in Arakan State and no deaths from January to May 24.
• Due to the conflict in Arakan State, 122 government primary schools, which have been closed since 2017, will not be able to reopen this academic year. 

25 May

• Family members told DMG that they had not been in contact with 10 Arakanese from Haigyi Island in Ayeyarwady Region’s Ngaputaw Township for about a month, after they were arrested on suspicion of having links to the Arakan Army (AA).
• Myanmar’s military regime has relaxed restrictions on the supply of rice to Dar Lat Chaung village-tract in Ann Township, according to residents.
• There are fears that it will be difficult for internally displaced people (IDPs) from Kyauktalone IDP camp in Kyaukphyu Township to relocate because the new location for IDPs is prone to flooding.
• Ko Tin Tun Aung, a resident of Paletwa, Chin State, who has been sentenced to three years in prison for incitement, will see an appeal that he has filed in the case go before a judge in early June, according to family members.
• 140 new school buildings will be built in the 17 townships of Arakan State during the 2022-23 financial year, according to the Arakan State Education Office.
• Ko Tin Naing Tun, a 26-year-old man from Thalukyun village in Thandwe Township, was sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour over alleged ties to anti-regime forces. 

26 May

• The Myanmar military raided two homes owned by an official from the United League of Arakan (ULA), which is the political wing of the Arakan Army (AA), and a local resident in Laytaung town, Ramree Township.
• Fighting broke out between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army near the village of Abaung Thar in the west of Paletwa Township, Chin State, with locals concerned for their safety.
• Two village administrators in Sittwe Township were re-arrested four days after they were released on bail and charged under the Forest Law, according to family members.
• The Arakan State Public Health Department provided cervical cancer screenings for 500 local women at Sittwe Hospital from May 26-28.
• Junta troops detained the administrator and two 10-household heads from Paletwa Township’s Abaung Thar village after regime forces clashed with the Arakan Army (AA) earlier in the day.
• A man and a woman in Kyaukphyu were arrested by the military for allegedly raising funds for the Arakan Army (AA), according to family members. 

27 May

• A group of locals whose homes and shops were recently removed in Ann Township are having difficulties finding new shelter and feeding their families.
• Life jackets are needed for students in Arakan State who will be embarking on ferry boats to get to school, parents say.
• The Arakan State Public Health Department still aims for 100 percent coverage of a two-dose Covid-19 vaccine regimen in Arakan State, but many have refused to receive their second shot, according to the department’s assistant director, Dr. Soe Win Paing.
• Some parts of the Maungdaw-Ale Thankyaw road in Maungdaw Township have been badly damaged due to heavy rains in Arakan State over recent days, making it difficult for commuters to travel, according to truck drivers.
• A court in Yangon’s Kamayut Township sentenced Ma Khinzar Chel Kyaw, U Thein Tun Aye, Ko Soe Soe and Ma Tin May La, who were charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law on suspicion of having ties to the Arakan Army (AA), to lengthy imprisonment. 

28 May

• The parents of local students are worried that a post-primary school in Myo Ywar village, Ponnagyun Township, is in danger of collapsing, and at best will not adequately weather the onsetting monsoon season.
• Farmers across the country, including in Arakan State, are finding it difficult to grow paddy due to the skyrocketing prices of both fertiliser and fuel this year.
• The Sittwe Township Development Committee threatened domestic animal owners with legal action if they do not take proper care of their livvestock. 

29 May

• Many dogs have been stricken by an undiagnosed malady and died in Manaung Township, according to locals and an official from the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department.
• The Arakan State Public Health Department plans to administer the Covid-19 vaccine to 386,000 children aged 5 and older across the state’s 17 townships.
• A local man from Paletwa Township in Chin State was severely injured in a landmine blast and was admitted to Sittwe General Hospital.
• Fourteen Arakanese nationals have reportedly been detained at a detention centre in Yunnan Province, China, since January of this year. 

30 May 

• Two 10-household heads from Paletwa Township’s Abaung Thar village who were detained after regime forces clashed with the Arakan Army (AA) were released, but an administrator arrested along with them is still being held, locals said.
• The Arakan State Fisheries Department has taken action against nine fishing trawlers that failed to install turtle excluder devices (TEDs) in their fishing nets.
• A fire broke out at Nyaungchaung bazaar in Buthidaung Township, destroying at least 25 shops.
• The price of petrol in Arakan State had risen to over K3,000 per litre in the last week of May.
• For the academic year 2022-2023, basic education schools in Arakan State started accepting students from May 26, and by May 30, more than 320,000 students had enrolled. 

31 May 

• With the opening of Myanmar’s public schools approaching, health officials were instructed to raise awareness about the coronavirus’s highly contagious Omicron variant at schools in Arakan State, said Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the Department of Public Health.
• The military regime’s Ministry of Health waived the mandatory requirement for pre-flight Covid-19 screening test for those who have received three doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to an official from the Arakan State Public Health Department.
• Local civil society organisations (CSOs) in Ramree called for cooperation between concerned departments and residents in order to develop a proper garbage disposal system in the town.
• An elderly woman from Yokethar village in Kyauktaw Township was killed in a landmine blast, according to local residents.
• A submarine assumed to belong to the Myanmar military was spotted traversing the Thanzit River in Kyaukphyu Township, locals told DMG, amid rising military tensions in the region.
• According to locals, junta troops stationed at Kyauktaw Taung Pagoda, a prominent pagoda in Arakan State, fired on the Nyaung Chaung and Mahamuni IDP camps with small arms.