An annual pagoda festival at Bay Ngar Rar Mountain near Yoke Tayoke Village in Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township will not be held this year due to ongoing fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA), according to the pagoda board of trustees.

Family members say they have not been in contact with two men from Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township for about a month, after they were arrested on suspicion of having ties to the Arakan Army (AA).

Activists organised a campaign against a China-backed deep-sea port project in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township on October 27.

Family members say they have not been in contact with 13 Arakanese from Haigyi Island in Ayeyarwady Region for more than a month, after they were arrested on suspicion of having links to the Arakan Army (AA).

Eighteen people who were detained by Malaysian authorities during a raid on the office of the Arakan Refugee Relief Committee (ARRC) in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month have been released. A 16-year-old girl, however, remains detained. 

A 68-year-old man from Inndin Village in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township has reportedly been missing since October 26.

The Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) has reached a deal to send 200,000 tonnes of rice to Bangladesh, of which Arakan State will supply 2,500 tonnes, according to U Than Shwe, chairman of the Arakan State Rice Millers Association.

A Muslim cleric in Phokhaung Chaung Village, part of Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township, was injured by a junta artillery strike at about 6 p.m. on October 27, according to family members and the villager administrator.

More than 1.6 million people in Myanmar have been displaced over the past 18 months, since last year’s military coup, according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar.

Forty-six Muslims attempting to leave Arakan State for work opportunities in Malaysia were arrested by regime authorities in Gwa Township on Wednesday morning.

Of four employees from the Department of Agricultural Land Management and Statistics Department in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu, two have been released, but the two others remain under military detention.

Correspondent students from Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Pauktaw townships attending Sittwe University say they are unable to return home as Myanmar’s military regime has blockaded both land and water routes in northern Arakan State.

Relatives have not yet been allowed to meet some 20 Arakanese and Muslim detainees who were arrested by the Myanmar military from the central market and jetty in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township on Sunday.

Hundreds of residents from six villages in northern Arakan State displaced by junta shelling are reportedly facing livelihood hardships.

Thousands of people displaced by fighting between the military and Arakan Army in Arakan State need warmer clothes and blankets for the coming months as seasonal temperatures begin to fall, according to displacement camp officials.

More than 1,600 acres of paddy fields were damaged by strong winds blamed on cyclonic storm Sitrang in Arakan State’s Pauktaw and Manaung townships, according to local farmers.

A mother and father were killed and their two children were injured in the Tuesday shelling of a location where internally displaced people (IDPs) are sheltering in Loikaw Township, Kayah State, according to aid workers.

Myanmar junta troops and the Arakan Army (AA) clashed near Chein Ka Li Village in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township on Wednesday evening, prompting local villagers to flee their homes.

Arakanese and Muslim students are working together to promote harmony between the two communities in Arakan State.