Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has denied that his troops have carried out air raids and arson attacks on civilian homes and settlements, pushing back against accusations made by the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar in her first visit to the country this week.

Health officials are recommending the use of a drug called PrEP to prevent the spread of HIV, which attacks the immune system and can be fatal.

A petition by nine teacher assistants seeking reinstatement to the jobs that they were suspended from in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, has not changed anything for them more than two months after they submitted it for consideration.

Drivers in Arakan State say that continuous increases in the price of fuel make it difficult to earn a living wage. 

Rising fuel prices have forced local small-scale fisheries in Arakan State to halt their operations, creating hardships for many fishing families. 

Twenty-five Muslims were arrested in the Arakan State town of Ngapali on Friday evening, according to a police officer on duty from the Thandwe police station. 

Local residents have called for reopening the road linking Ponnagyun and Rathedaung, which has been closed by Myanmar’s military regime for more than two months.  

Express boat lines in Arakan State resumed operations on Saturday after they were instructed to suspend their routes on August 18 due to inclement weather off the Arakan coast. 

Police have barred the Metta Yaungchi Foundation, a charitable organisation in Sittwe, from collecting donations to provide emergency support for displaced people who have fled their homes due to fighting in Arakan State over recent weeks. 

The Myawaddy trade zone, a key area for transborder commerce between Myanmar and Thailand in Kayin (Karen) State’s Myawaddy Township, was re-opened on Friday after being closed by Myanmar’s military regime the day prior. 

A United Nations official in Myanmar used the occasion of World Humanitarian Day, marked annually on August 19, to call for “an end to the unrelenting violence that is terrifying communities and making these brave humanitarian efforts necessary” in the country, which has seen hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced since the military’s February 2021 coup. 

More than 1,500 residents of six villages in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township have fled to safer locations after the Myanmar military clashed with the Arakan Army (AA) recently. 

Junta security forces conducted searches for overnight guests in some apartments at the Shwe Pyi Tha low-cost housing in Sittwe’s Sat Yoe Kya ward at around 9 p.m. on Thursday, according to residents. 

Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu experienced record-setting rainfall on Wednesday, according to an official from the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, amid reports of widespread flooding in the town. 

Ferryboat services plying water routes between Kyunsu and Myeik townships in Tanintharyi Region will likely suspend operations due to increases in the prices of fuel, according to ferryboat owners. 

Food prices have shot up in Chin State’s Paletwa more than two weeks after the military regime blocked waterways linking Paletwa and neighbouring Arakan State’s Kyauktaw, which Paletwa heavily relies upon for food supplies and other goods. 

Family members have not been allowed to see four men from northern Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, including a village administrator and a village in-charge, who were arrested by the Myanmar military about a month ago. 

The department of Inland Water Transport has instructed ferry services operating in Arakan State to suspend operations from August 18-20 due to forecasts predicting dangerous conditions brought on by a depression and cyclonic circulation off the coast of Arakan State. 

Many townships in the commercial capital Yangon were flooded by torrential rains that began just after midnight on Wednesday and lasted for hours.